Casa Umbral is a project for a young family on a flat lot 20m wide and 40m deep, facing an artificial lagoon in a warm and tropical geographical area. Its architecture divides the program into two volumes with a garden in the middle.
The first volume, towards the front of the lot, is resolved on the upper floor as a suspended bar that leaves a void below, creating a threshold leading to a central garden of the house. This central green space opens towards the sky and its sides, allowing cross ventilation to passively cool the home. Only after crossing this threshold is the private life of the home revealed.
Upon entering from its central garden, the social spaces are unveiled in transparency with the outside, forming 2 social areas, one internal and another external. Both spaces can be closed with sliding glass doors according to the environmental variations of the area. The two social spaces fluidly coexist with a side bar that houses the kitchen, BBQ area, and outdoor pool.
The upper-floor volume towards the street contains private rooms that form a concave façade, reinforcing the entrance to the central threshold. The management of privacy, sunlight, and natural ventilation is resolved through movable sunshades in front of each window. These evoke, in a contemporary way, the historical memory of the architecture of the Ecuadorian coast.
On the upper floor, two bridges cross over the central garden to connect the social area towards the lagoon with the bedroom area towards the main street. This route always keeps in mind the condition of the central garden as a lung of natural light, air, and vegetation that can be enjoyed throughout the interior paths of the house.
Casa Umbral explores the contemporary house that gathers essential elements of life in the Ecuadorian tropics to try to combine them with spaces of discovery and surprise in close relation to its surroundings.
View Original