House I

The clients are a young couple with children who regularly entertain guests at home. They needed a house with a garden and a large covered space connected to nature where they could accommodate a large number of people, cook while engaging in relaxed conversation or comfortably organise a group meal. They also considered it important to establish a clear boundary between the private (temporarily semi-public) and intimate spheres.

The spaces are built using a simple system of large prefabricated concrete walls and beams, more typical of the industrial world than the domestic one. These walls and beams are moved, folded and stacked like a LEGO set according to the needs of each place. This process, which required great precision during the design and manufacture of the pieces, greatly sped up the subsequent assembly from the point of view of economy and deadlines, since the vertical structure was completed in just two days of work. The house is dimensioned from a square module of 90x90cm that is partially visible on the pavement and measures the voids and solids.

The house has only one floor and a seemingly firm rectangular perimeter, but its boundaries are much more diffuse than it seems. The volume, completely made of concrete on the outside and white on the inside, opens on its five sides (facades + roof) to provide natural light and views depending on the needs. To the north, pedestrian access is through a first open courtyard on two of its sides, drawn by three walls and two beams, and populated by an olive tree brought from Extremadura. To the south, a large 9-metre long gap opens onto the main space of the garden and the leafy trees of an old mill bed, while it is protected from the sun by a porch that pierces its roof on one side to open to the sky and let the rain through. To the east, the most intimate rooms look out through two deep openings, to take advantage of the first morning sun with a certain privacy while taking over the narrow garden space that separates the house from its neighbour. And, to the west, a large rectangular, shallow opening, like a transparent screen, makes the daily act of cooking more pleasant and allows you to see the sun set at the end of the day. The garage, located on the north-west side, separates and protects the rest of the house from the cold and the road behind.

The extensive central space is perforated in the roof by a small square patio that, like a skylight, illuminates the centre of the house and gives meaning to the various crossed flows of people, views and lights. Despite its small size, this landscaped void open to the sky brings its true personality to the house, making it “always never different, but never always the same” (quoting Chillida), and populating it with a great variety of transparencies, reflections and different colours according to each moment.