Casa CER
The construction is located in the Uzhupud, Paute - Ecuador; on a slope with an inclination of 30%. This characteristic, added to the condition of its rocky soil, were decisive for the inspiration of the project design.
The House Between Rocks is a house designed for the peace of its inhabitants. The owners asked us for a home that provides different sensations in its interior and exterior journey and that its formal resolution is sober but at the same time intriguing and novel.
This project tries to materialize two terms, Tectonic and Stereotomic, which come from Gotfried Semper, and which according to Alberto Campo Baeza are eminently architectural terms, and not abstract concepts applicable to architecture.
The main idea of relating these concepts in the project was born from the visit to the site, a place characterized by being a rocky, area, that is, we were presented with the stereotomic aspect from the start. What remained to be solved is how the tectonic is placed on the foundations, understanding the tectonic as the light, punctual and light.
The project is solved in two levels: Ground Floor or Stereotomic Level and Upper Floor or Tectonic Level.
- Ground Floor or Stereotomic Level: Space that takes over the darkness of the project, due to the predominance of blind walls that surround it. This level has as its structural base a reinforced concrete wall, a base that appears as if it were a natural extension of the earth. This space seeks light inside, as if it were a cave, strategically perforating its walls to allow sunlight to enter it, light that is the material capable of putting man in relationship with architecture. Part of this level tilts 45 degrees and detaches from the natural slope of the land, settling only on a V-shaped structure of Reinforced Concrete. Generating the intrigue of how something so heavy floats in the air.
- Upper Floor or Tectonic Level: Transparent space that sits delicately on the blind block, its structure is articulated by light columns, that is, what rests on the heavy thing is pure bone, a structure that stands on tiptoe and that allows the passage of light in its entirety. The route between these two levels is defined by a circulation block, inside which there is a spiral staircase. Block that rises 3.60 meters above the second level, taking us to an outdoor terrace, which gives us exceptional views of the Uzhupud Valley. Despite working on very contradictory concepts such as (Earth – Sky), it is possible to make visible what is light and heavy, issues that push the experiences of our lives to the limit in both their exterior and interior journey. In this way, these concepts and structures that this architecture works on, in addition to generating its clearest reading, supporting and transmitting loads to the ground, are what generate, build and organize the space and architectural form.
