ENFILADE HOUSE
ENFILADE HOUSE arises as a response to the original rigid configuration of the dwelling (1920), characterised by a fragmented distribution of rooms connected by a long corridor, and, on the other hand, with the need to solve a habitability scenario for an undefined end user. Therefore, the proposal required assuming the uncertainty and moving through the realms of indeterminacy and flexibility, being defined by the relationship between ‘the unique and the multiple’, thus demonstrating the necessary adaptability and transformation required in the contemporary domestic space.
In this sense, the dwelling is conceived as a large ‘domestic unit’ that concentrates a series of possible non-static relationships, with the capacity to transform and mutate into multiple ‘spatial units’, according to the emerging needs and the potential of interaction between them. To this end, it was decided to work under the architectural principle of the ‘enfilade’, a model of spatial organization that allows rooms to be related in a concatenated way, thus dissolving conventional boundaries and deconstructing the traditional imaginary of the corridor.
In this way, the house is organized based on a possible maximum of ten ‘spatial units’, understanding that each one of them is defined by the limit configurated by the presence of one or more translucent sliding panels, mechanisms that make possible the transformation of the domestic unit. The seven moving panels of the house have floor-to-ceiling height and the maximum possible width, being able to be unfolded or completely hidden thanks to a system of double partition walls. Thus, by activating this mechanism of spatial transformation, a dynamic reorganization system is generated, which is not based on an additive relationship between spatial units, but rather a multiplicative one, an issue previously investigated in the project Multiple House (2021), and which offers a dynamic of constant adaptability, where the possible transformation into different spatial units will always result in one, the domestic unit, which will always be different in each association of spatial units, thus generating at least 32 possible domestic units.
The materials used reinforce the principles of unity, relationship and transformation proposed: a continuous lime micro-mortar flooring, as a single surface unifying the different spatial units; the translucent panels of fir wood and cellular polycarbonate, which enable light to penetrate the entire length of the house, defining a dual mechanism which offers communication in the glimpse of the material itself, and at the same time, autonomy and privacy in the constant overlapping of elements; and, finally, the ceramic brickwork, which resolves the double partition walls, and provides, in its exposed finish, a haptic condition to the spatial experience.
Finally, an interior circular window, with a built-in blackout system and made entirely of fir wood, works as a communication device between the larger spatial unit and its adjacent one with undetermined function, proposing a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Japanese ‘marumado’, an element that originally connected the interior space with the exterior landscape and which, in this case, establishes a link between what we understand as ‘domestic landscapes’ within the house.
