Raúl Sanchez architects has redesigned this house organizing functionally the ground floor as day zone and the first floor as night zone. The project can be read as a dialectical game since the spaces in first and ground floor will be configured with physical and visual connections, so that the day area will be physically joined but visually separated and the night area will be connected visually but physically separate.
Description of the project by RAS Arquitectura/ Raúl Sanchez Molina
The proposal is for a small budget intervention in which demolition is minimized to make the most of existing features, aimed at combining a second home with seasonal rentals. However, the home's current floor plan is outdated and does not meet the new functional requirements and needs.
With a few changes, the idea is to change the way the house is lived in. On the ground floor, the kitchen is small and has little relation to the other spaces; although the new kitchen project maintains its current location to take advantage of the existing plumbing and drain systems, it now opens up to the living room through an opening in the wall that separates these two spaces, which is a load-bearing wall and thus requires reinforcing. Under this reinforcement, a new curved partition is added between the living room and the kitchen, creating a dining area. But this partition does not reach the ceiling as it is only 180 cm tall, and its purpose is to create a distinct area but without splitting the space, adding interior circulation complexity and spatial richness. The rest of the interior interventions on the ground floor are focused on creating a space continuum without physical separation but using specific elements to define the different areas based on their function.
On the first floor, again with the aim of preserving most elements and minimizing demolition, the five-bedroom layout is kept, but the features of the central bedroom are completely changed: its opaque doorway becomes transparent, with the possibility of opening this room completely to the hallway through two large sliding doors. This way, this room's function becomes flexible, as it can be separated from the rest as a bedroom (by means of an opaque curtain), as a game or reading room, or as the extension of the hallway into the outdoor terrace. Concealed built-in closets hide folding beds and storage surfaces, enabling different uses for these rooms. Replacing the floors, as well as the new wall lining, helps reinforce this new strategy. For the ground floor, a new black ceramic floor in a herringbone pattern unifying all areas and seen again in the common areas on the first floor is selected.
The intervention on the ground floor (daytime living areas) and the first floor (nighttime living areas) can be read as a dialectical play: on the ground floor, the spaces are physically connected but visually and functionally separated, while on the first floor, the main room is visually connected but physically separated. The oak veneer boards reinforce this play, lining the separating element on the ground floor (the curved partition), and the unifying element on the first floor (the hallway and central room continuum).
All external carpentry has been replaced, with fixed windows fitted on the outside of the façade's plane, and openable windows and doors on the inside, showing the thickness of the façade wall in each opening.
A second outdoor renovation phase, including a new pool, a pergola, new pavement and an extra bedroom, will complete the overall project.
