VOL House

Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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VOL House

Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Firm

Type

Residential › Private House

YEAR

2008

SIZE

10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

The objective of the
Project was the restoration and extension of a single family townhouse, in the area of Palermo
within the city of Buenos Aires,
from the beginning of the 20th century. The challenge was to update the house
to the 21st century way of living.
The house is located in a
street passage, one of the few urban sub-systems of this kind which managed to
remain almost unchanged. The street is shaped by a row of townhouses each one
with a similar arrangement; an inner back patio dividing its single plan in
three distinctive spatial units. Over the years some of these houses have been
added an extra floor, and their terraces grew up to accommodate new functions
such as extra bedrooms, laundry rooms or playrooms. In the beginning, all of
the existing houses shared the same stylistic qualities proper to their period,
but as time went by their façades changed to create the eclectic scenery we can
enjoy today. Fortunately these changes respected the original overall
composition and lines, proportions and mass, maintaining its domestic character
and its almost suburban quality.
The original building, as
interesting as it was, had no real historical value, but, because of all the
combined factors detailed above, we decided not to demolish it. We defined the
task as an update of the house to accommodate contemporary life, within the
existing typology, maintaining the original single elements worth keeping and
adding an extension to accommodate the rest of the program.
The program is spread in
two plans and a half-floor plan. The ground floor plan retained the three
spatial units around the patio, but reconfigures their uses to match the new
way of living. The entrance leads to the central space of the house, containing
the patio, and dividing the house in an almost symmetrical arrangement, powered
by the twin curved doors leading to the living room and the playroom. These
doors are kept as an evocative gesture, although the function of one of them is
no longer needed. The main space unit, along the side, contains the public
areas of the dwelling, living room, dining room and kitchen. They conform a
single space but remain recognizable by the difference in treatment of their
ceilings; the original complex Beaux-Arts ceiling of the living room is
restored, a much cleaner, but still classic ceiling is added to the dining
area, and finally a contemporary negative joint is introduced in the kitchen,
creating a progressive transition throughout this space. This is enhanced by
positioning the kitchen’s elements parallel to the direction of the room
integrating it to the dining area. The space unit on the other side contains; a
small bedroom and bathroom, the re-located staircase, in direct relation to the
central hall, and the playroom, which is placed towards the street. All of the
wooden floors are kept and restored, and the tiles in the central hall are
removed and replaced, due to aging and cracks. All of the existing, good
quality doors are also kept and re-located along the dwelling. The half-floor
plan, now reached by the new interior stair, accommodates another bedroom with
its own new bathroom. And as we move up to the first floor, we find ourselves
in the completely new extension, built to enhance its connection to the
exterior by means of two large glass surfaces, one towards the patio and
terrace, and another viewing the street. This new extension contains the main
bedroom, with its master bathroom overlooking the passage, and the family
studio in connection to the terrace.
The newly constructed
extension is understood as a whole new volume, positioned to enjoy natural
light, while carved so as to avoid the strike of direct sunlight. These
carvings generate both, a roofed terrace overlooking the patio and a continuous
eave towards the street. The new volume concentrates all of the formal features
in the intervention and creates a dialogue with the existing building. Its
intention is to act as the top of the classical façade without loosing its
contemporary identity.
The chosen materials where
dictated by the existing palette, heart pine floors, cedar and black painted
steel for the windows and doors and white plaster finishes for the walls. This
repetition allows a sensitive integration throughout the whole building.
The objective of the
intervention is to accommodate the program of a contemporary way of living in a
pre-existing built frame, and the generation of a quiet dialogue between new
and old.