Casa JD
The city of Salta is usually described as La Linda. This label goes back not only to its landscape qualities of hills and valleys, but also to its strong architectural tradition of colonial character. In this sense, it is very stimulating to understand tradition -from the Latin tradereas a continuum of constructive and spatial tests in accordance and in harmony with the place, rather than by its stylistic or formal representation and expression.
The commission consists of a family home for a young couple, in a suburban neighborhoods of the town of San Lorenzo, a few km from the colonial center of the city of Salta, and without the landscaping qualities so predominant in Salta as its main characteristic. A terrain with a moderate slope, with access on its upper level, and without any clear reference regarding its immediate context.
The main strategy arises as a result of the client's request for a house closely linked to the outside and at the same time reserved from the curious eyes of the neighbor's. The relationship with the ground and the implantation were crucial in the distribution of the program. All the rooms are closely linked to a direct garden, positioning each part of the program at the foundation level according to the natural slope. Conceived as a "one-story" house with the possibility of small stairs that link the different platforms, enhancing the architectural route and its relationship with the outside as part of a user experience rather than as its result. The void, -understood as the presence of an absence, in the words of Jorge Oteiza- configures the distribution of the parts that make up the house and enhance the look diagonally and through the different spaces, intermingling the interior-exterior as a part of the same. The program is organized in a round and clear way, closing with the wet and service cores towards its sides (neighbor's) and open inwards through windows of horizontal proportions that enhance the sense of travel, treating the openings as a cinematographic format. The library, in the central space of the house, where literature, together with botany and cinema, express the passion of the inhabitants. The access seeks to eliminate the notion of a door that categorically divides the interior from the exterior to become a private garden as an access cloister, so typical of the colonial tradition. The roof with a single slope accompanies the notion of spatial path as if it were a soil extraction.
Lastly, the use of brick with a thick joint, so typical of the area, works as both an interior and exterior closure on the vertical studs as well as on the roof. Everything unified under the color white, with the exception of the interior of the roof, where the most specialized workforce - prefabricated brick panels in situ - enhances its presence.
