柱间房屋丨Esteras Perrote

Architects:Esteras Perrote

Area:150m²

Year:2023

Photographs:Juan Cruz Paredes

Text description provided by the architects. We imagined a continuous space between the street and the house, where boundaries dissolve and coexist. A series of circular columns configure a domestic landscape, where the space structure forms the foundational matrix, and the objective is not the object but the experience. The grid structures the program and supports it without altering the ground. The ramp extends the ground and its use, allowing one to look over a landscape of hills and plains.

Location. The project is located in a peripheral neighborhood to the southwest of Córdoba. It is a recent neighborhood extending around the outskirts like so many others. It is characterized by a grid inserted on the plain, about the mountain range, with only streets and service structures. The commission for a young single-family home on two small, contiguous lots was born within this real estate logic of residential experiments on small lots. Oriented north towards the neighborhood's main artery and facing a large community green space, the contiguous lots form a dimension of 24 meters in front by 22 meters deep.

12 columns and open ground floor. As the first response to the site visit, in an arid environment with limited dimensions for developing a family housing program, the proposal was to elevate the residential program to the upper floor, thus freeing the entire ground for public and shared use. In this way, one lot is entirely dedicated to green space, while the other portion of the ground is allocated to other living programs. About 12 circular columns 30 cm in diameter, a free program is developed on the ground floor that houses complementary programs, parking, laundry, and a barbecue area. These programs gather around a compact core towards the interior of the lot, to maximize the surface area so that life happens around the columns and the green space.

The ramp. Regarding the connection between the public and the private, the upper and the lower, the ramp is proposed as an intermediary between these opposing aspects. With the concept of stimulating a journey and extending the ground to the upper floor, the ramp begins and detaches until a landing/viewpoint is reached. Then, it continues upwards until the house's entrance, where a landing recesses inward and reveals its column. There, the arrival space extends, embracing the entrance.

Program. The commission comes from a young family with two very young daughters, where the main response had to be in the harmonious coexistence of different ages and uses of spaces. About these 12 circular columns, a flexible, traditional use program is proposed, with individual bedrooms and bathroom cores, but focusing on circulations and the possibilities that stem from it. This way, the bathroom and kitchen cores occur in other spaces, ensuring a journey through the house.

Structure and space. The space structure is the foundational matrix, where the objective is not the object but the experience. The material and technique pay homage to the art of building. Concrete is the house's identity configuring element, exploring and exploiting its technical and plastic capabilities to achieve constructive and spatial efficiency—the experience of living among columns, the honesty of support, of its own weight and gravity.

Sustainability. Made of noble materials, sustainability in this proposal is understood as the low impact on the maintenance of the house, as well as the basic concepts of natural sunlight and cross ventilation. The program does not create sealed spaces but rather flows lengthwise and widthwise, ensuring connections. Elevating the program, freeing the ground, and maintaining its original condition were the first premises to avoid modifying its natural condition and permeability.

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