Global Future Design Awards 2019
First Award
Category: Housing
Firm: Caballero+Colón
Architect: Paula Caballero García
Team: Paula Caballero + Diego Colón de Carvajal
Country: Spain
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SITE ADAPTATION: The views of the bay, the valley and the mountains, as well as the rugged and steep topography of the plot are the basis of the project.
The design starts with a stone platform and stairs system inspired in the island traditional terraces. These stone works combined with the native plants landscaping convert the climb into a pleasant walk uphill. On top, the house volume´s fragmentation and the semi-underground position adapt the house gently to the slope.
The four boxes have large picture windows and small side openings carefully placed to frame the different splendid views.
SPACE RICHNESS: The stacking of boxes apparently at random constitutes the hallmark of the house. The volumetric composition has been carried out according to the needs of the different rooms, their orientation and the desired views.
Going through the space delimited by the four rectangular prisms with their punctual openings is an experience of great richness and visual complexity.
INNOVATIVE INTERIOR LAYOUTS: Despite its similar dimensions and identical program, the three bedrooms are different. Two statements here:
1.- There is no one ideal bedroom.
2.- The three variants enhance the house and allow each user to find the one he likes best.
The en suite bedrooms have the distinctiveness that the sink, bathtub or shower are treated as isolated pieces of furniture set freely in the space, allowing to enjoy the views from every spot.
BIOCLIMATIC STRATEGIES: The half-buried position of the house helps to reach an interior comfort temperature, thanks to the contact with the more constant and moderate temperature of the ground.
The thermal insulation of walls and roofs has been placed on the outside to avoid any thermal bridge.
The complex geometry, with its numerous façade plans and orientations, together with the placement of a small interior landscaped patio, allow the use of pressure differences to generate gentle currents of cool air, making unnecessary the use of air conditioning in the summer months.
LOCAL AND NATURE MATERIALS: Not only the white flexible lime stucco coating, the sandstone, the hydraulic tile and the pine wood, but also the plants, the soil, the gravel and the water are the materials involved in the design of the house.
MULTISENSORIAL EXPERIENCE: The house is not a protected place for observing nature through its large window-eyes: it is part of it and constantly evokes it.
The barrier between interior and exterior is blurred with the glass walls and the landscaped courtyards. Despite the volumetric abstraction of the stacked cuboids, the house tries to awake every sense. The grainy feel of sandstone when barefoot, the silky touch of the flexible lime stucco, the reflections of the pool water on the ceiling’s room, the sparkling shadows of the bamboo leaves that bathe the inside common areas, the sound of the breeze and the distant waves are part of the architectural experience and make us feel in the middle of the nature.
