“CASAS NARANJOS” is a NOVHUS ARCHITECTURE OFFICE project for the field of real estate development. This is the Design of two Houses for sale, but unlike multiple examples that we are accustomed to seeing in this segment, the ORANGE HOUSES has the mission to prove that the ARCHITECTURE IS FOR ALL and that the Design is not exclusive to the residences or other major typologies. It is a proposal to claim housing in the real estate market.
This design of houses are developed under the premise: CONFORT ≠ M2
COMFORT. Definition: Material conditions that provide well-being or comfort. Loan of English comfort and this of French comfort ‘strengthen, consolidate’. In English the term has gone from the moral sense to designate a physical and material state and, by metonymy, the material conditions that allow to enjoy this state.
The concept is clear and yet the challenge is to ensure that the physical sensory perception of the cabin is effectively comfort. So to achieve a comfortable design, we appeal to a project logic that gives a satisfactory solution to almost ordinary basic issues such as the articulation of the architectural program, lighting, sunning, ventilation and efficiency of dimensions, since it is in the simplicity of the everyday where the genuine solution of space underlies.
Particularly this house, NARANJOS 02, divides its program into two levels. Ground floor houses social spaces and upstairs intimate spaces. The house is presented as a large black block which is crossed by a white volume at the level of the upper floor and generates an opening that runs to the ground floor. The access is located on the side, is hidden and discovered when approaching the house. When entering the foreshortening, it is extended thanks to an inclined side wall, the viewer's attention is attracted towards the bottom, finishing off a limestone wall, typical of the place that was once a cement plant, where the viewer's attention is concentrated. After this first intention, the shadows thrown from the skylight of the stairs come into action, the definition of the space is clarified and the invitation for the ascent is opened by some monolithic wooden stairs to the top. Up the landing of the stairs gives you two options, on the right a large living area that in turn connects with rooms and bathroom. On the left, the main room, which is crossed visually until it reaches a terrace that maintains a permeable facade that allows ventilation and lighting and only a few pixels of the street's exterior image. This facade is a kind of brocade in annealed red mud that manifests itself as a representative of the architectural identity that is pursued. Light is a central part of the atmosphere of the house, openings, massifs and materials move at their own pace. The mixture of materials occurs between steel, mud, cement flattened and ceramic floors.
(Luis Moctezuma, 2019