Located in the Tumbaco Valley, in one of the lowest areas of the entire city, which is characterized by its aridity and particular vegetation, where the pencos and carob trees stand out.
The land borders on its sides to other lands and on its back to a ravine on the San Pedro River.
Topography and implantation:
The project is based on the understanding of the environment and its topography. The proposed strategy was to implant the house in the back and lowest part of the land. In this way, achieving:
1. The proximity of the house to the ravine, taking advantage of its unalterable natural benefits, as well as the sound of the waters of the San Pedro River.
2. The location of the house at the lowest level of the land, which implies its integration with the garden and avoids the need for filling and retaining walls. The project adapts to the negative slope topography, generating two platforms that are connected by means of the parking deck slab, and a ramp that reveals a slope that delimits the access plaza and a sunken garden.
3. The feeling of privacy with and towards the neighbors. The constant of the houses in this area has been to implant the houses in the upper part of the land, in order to have a large area of rear garden. By implanting the house in the lower part, we managed to isolate ourselves from the nearby buildings, and thus maximize the experience with the ravine and the river.
Landscape / Material:
Having an arid landscape, where the ravine with clay soil and adobe walls predominate, we decided to homologate this materiality by using exposed concrete walls. In its mixing process, a pigment was included to achieve the desired color. Additionally, they were formworked with half-staves of mountain wood to highlight the desired rough and imperfect texture. The horizontal arrangement of the concrete volume facing the adjacent ravine generates a continuity of the landscape, trying to dissolve into the site, as if it had always been there.
Orientation, sunlight and views:
To achieve the maximum use of the views of the ravine, an elongated prism is proposed that goes from side to side of the land, retreating 3 m from each boundary to comply with regulations.
To provide most of the spaces in the house with a view of the ravine, the volume is broken, achieving an amplification of the views. The angle generated by the break is oriented to the north, achieving the ideal sunlight and thermal comfort.
This angle will serve as a complementary axis of the house, enriching its spatiality.
The front facade of the house, where it is exposed to the neighbors, has an iron plate lattice that serves to blind the interior spaces of the house and generate an effect of light and shadow and blur the distant nature.
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