Casa LaPaz
To invert the traditional house model, flipping its common scheme of a house with a garden, in order to create : a garden with its house. By making the external element an integral part of the living space, the house and its garden cease to be two distinct entities and merge into a single unified element. The fusion of the interior and the exterior generates a sense of expansiveness of the habitable space of the house.
This new permeability between the garden and the house erases the classic hermetic border between in and out, leading to the creation of a unique habitable garden. To realize this idea of a garden/house, the key was to preserve and work with the original essence of the land and its topography, ensuring its identity would be preserved and transferred to the house itself.
But how can the land identity be transferred to the house without destroying it during construction? There was a subtle preexisting relationship between the land and a dry creek on the south side, where both were merging. The challenge of the project was to integrate the house into the topography of the land without disrupting this preexisting connection between the land and its creek. It is precisely at this point that the balance between destruction and preservation had to be found. The house had to allow the land to enter, the project had to become permeable, never interrupting the topography.
In this way, the land could continue to express itself and evolve, moving from its relationship with the creek into a new relationship that includes the house ; placing the house in between those two original elements, without trying to tame either the land or the creek.
Casa LaPaz project, by embracing the topography and allowing it to remain, seeks to preserve the feeling that existed when walking the untouched land for the first time. Casa LaPaz project is designed like a walk through the land and by extension, through the house. The house isn't static; it invites people to move, to explore, and the enjoy the land as it changes throughout the day, under the action of the successive lights. The house appears as a collection of pavilions, creating multiple corners and, thus, multiple atmospheres. It's a small house, but made of multiples spaces where people can coexist in the same place without always being aware of each other presence. The project encourages living outdoors, thereby it eliminates the fundamental architectural element of the façade.
The project proposes to build a house organized around a large void, without façade, which does not create an enclosure. The house is permanently open and ventilated, but still meets the basic needs for protection and privacy of its inhabitants. Casa LaPaz is a house conceived from its negative space. Let me explain. Rather than starting from the design of the built living spaces - the positive space of the house - the project was conceived in reverse, beginning with this void that defines the garden. This empty space of the garden is the crucial element that protects the house and all of its interior spaces, serving as a buffer between the house, the street and its surrounding. These large void controls the view from the neighbors properties, allows the house to open up, and generates a strong sense of interiority outside in the garden. A sense of well-being envelops each space of the house, which is nestled among the tall organ pipe cactus, thick elephant trees and twisted desert bushes. By responding this way to the reality of the land, the conventional idea of what would normally be a living room has been redefined. The entire ground floor, its garden, and every single tree became one large open living area. There is no longer any distinction between interior and exterior. The garden becomes the living room, kitchen and dining room, in their entirety. Casa LaPaz inverts the traditional scheme of a house with its garden to create a garden with its house.
