Excerpt: CASA EP-02, designed by Colectivo NDS, has perfectly synchronized planes landing in a straight line from the balcony, like aligned stars marking the horizon. The residence has 2 floors, 3 “boxes” with different proportions, materials, and programs inside, stacked with strategic placements and orientations to make a functional, practical, and attractive home. A wrought iron staircase connects all the floors, framing the front patio.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] At the begging of the creative process, sometimes metaphors are so intimately infused in the essence of its materialization, that even if users are not sure of the threads moved for them to experience it, they manage to appreciate the result intuitively.
In house EP 02 this is so subtle and prevailing that even without knowing it, you can watch perfectly synchronized planes landing straight from the balcony, like aligned stars marking the horizon. This was achieved because the main axis of one of the 2 upper modules of the house was traced at the same angle than the landing track of the Guadalajara international airport, approximately 10 km away.
The 340 m2 project, located in the El Palomar private neighborhood in Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Jalisco, has 2 floors and 3 “boxes” with different proportions, materials, and programs inside, stacked with strategic placements and orientations to make a functional, practical and attractive home. The ground floor, which contains the service rooms, serves as the foundation on which the upper private bedrooms module rests. Taking advantage of its location on one of the highest hills in the city and its natural slopes, the second module rests organically on the ground. Both upper modules, divided according to their use, are connected by a terrace connector space, which serves as a bay between them and their different angles. The second module, containing the living areas, kitchen, dining room, and spaces for public use by the family, has Guadalajara city in all its splendor as a visual highlight.
It was designed to serve as a permanent home for an elderly couple; on one of its sides, the vehicular access ramp reaches the back of the land, accompanied by a pedestrian ramp. It allows easy access and entrance through the public area, without saving the height of the entrance, several meters above the 0.0 level. A wrought iron staircase connects all the floors, framing the front patio. Front patio in which a fragment of the volcanic history of the site still persists, embedded in the retaining wall, a beautiful obsidian rock looks out to remind us that there is no better landscaping than one that respects the environment and plays with the pre-existence of the land on which it is built.
Sustainability is present through the good use of water. A system made up of a biodigester, filters, irrigation system, allows it not to be wasted, but actually being reused or returned to the land, without needing to use public drainage systems.