Excerpt: Casa Pau is a residence designed by the architectural firm Besonias Almeida arquitectos. The challenge of this commission was then to conceive a house that had to start playing alone, establishing its laws, and waiting for completion that, regulated in this type of urbanization, encourages the proliferation of formally autistic loose objects surrounded by gardens. In this particular project, the shape and position of the openings protected by concrete partitions or wooden screens define a multiplicity of changing atmospheres that seek to highlight the spatiality of the environments.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by Architect] Casa Pau is located in a closed neighbourhood 35 km from Buenos Aires. New urbanization developed on the land of rural origin has been transformed into places suitable for living due to its proximity to the highway layout.
In the form of a circular sector, the lot had the inconvenience of a very narrow front to access and had the advantage that the fan-shaped opening towards the back adjoins a shared space with a few isolated trees.
The proposal
The particular shape of the lot finally provides the solution: a patio house typology that replicates the shape of the lot in the plan with its mandatory setbacks manages to solve all the required issues.
Through a narrow opening, there is access to that patio-garden, the foundational nucleus of this house. All the rooms are turned, considering that those spaces in need of greater privacy are protected with screens built with quebracho wood boards. With adjustable orientation. This system allows the regulation of the views and covers the large windows from the incidence of the sun.
A floor that crosses the entire patio diagonally and extends into the pool marks the access and defines two well-differentiated sectors. To the left is that of common activities and service, and to the right of the bedrooms. The dining room and living room are outstanding environments since they act as a bridge between the entrance patio and the free background.
The patio is the one that provides vegetation and light to all environments. The lateral facades are protected from the view of the neighbours with a series of vertical concrete partitions. The rooms open through large windows protected by substantial eaves towards the back.
Treatment of natural light
In all the studio’s projects, special attention is directed to controlling the incidence of solar rays on glass surfaces and taking advantage of natural light as a project material that adds richness to living spaces.
Openings are conceived as such, not as standardized elements with predetermined measurements and positions, but as holes in constructions that, of course, allow for ventilation and lighting of environments but also leave the exterior-interior relationship undefined, framing the landscape, filtering light, reflecting it on a wall, etc. These perforations result from the particular searches of each project and the relationships they want to establish with their specific environment.
In this particular project, the shape and position of the openings protected by concrete partitions or wooden screens define a multiplicity of changing atmospheres that seek to highlight the spatiality of the environments.
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