Cala house reflects the minimalist architecture designed by Alberto Campo Baeza, returning to its origins. Both typological as formally this latest project dubbed Cala house reminds us of those early projects of Turegano house or Gaspar house. With greater compositional and geometric processing that those houses, the new project shows a persistent and constant stylistic line followed by the architect. The minimalist single family house located in Madrid, Spain, was designed, in 2015.

The new house project designed by Campo Baeza, located in the west of Madrid, is framed by the four towers on the left, and right Madrid tower. The geometry plays a decisive role in the project, in which regulatory conditions are fulfilled, however  most important is the geometric, formal and compositional, that was used to design a 12x12mm cube house.

Square "that is divided into four 6×6 m squares. Following this pattern, the ground planes are raised, square by square, with a simple helicoidal movement. The spaces are of double height and intersect with one another producing diagonality which is also helicoidal. The result very well explains the proposal we set out with, namely that 2+2+2 is more than just 6."  said Alberto Campo Baeza.

Description of the project by Alberto Campo Baeza

The house is located on a sloping plot with a landscape of distant horizon none other than Madrid’s western mountain range viewed from Camarines. At ground level it doesn’t appear to be anything special, but as we go up we feast our eyes on a panoramic view of the urban landscape of the east of Madrid. From the four towers to the left to the Madrid tower to the right. Beautiful, and curious also. Logically the more public parts of the house will be at the upper levels to frame and enjoy the stunning views.

Complying with prevailing regulations we are required to work with a square ground plan of 12×12 m that is divided into four 6×6 m squares. Following this pattern, the ground planes are raised, square by square, with a simple helicoidal movement. The spaces are of double height and intersect with one another producing diagonality which is also helicoidal. The result very well explains the proposal we set out with, namely that 2+2+2 is more than just 6.

Thus in this house a known spatial mechanism is employed, the Raumplan, with the concatenation of spiraling double spaces. Each two double spaces are connected by vertical displacement so that a diagonal space is created. If, as we go up, we turn 90 degrees and connect it with the other two, and if we continue to go up turning a further 90 degrees, we get an amazing spatial structure: the concatenation of three spiraling diagonal spaces, just like a corkscrew, which further explains our statement that 2+2+2 is much more than 6.

Once the house is built and the appropriate openings are made, just like those of a musical instrument, so that it is filled with light, and once that instrument is tuned, we can highlight the movement of the solid light of the sun throughout the day. The rooftops planted with jasmine and vines will be a delightful feature, their large spaces framing this strange Madrid landscape. Similarly framed with vines and jasmines will be the porches below opening onto the garden.

CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-

Architect.- Alberto Campo Baeza.
Contractor.- Serviteco
Date.- Completed 2015

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Alberto Campo Baeza. Born in Valladolid (1946), where his grandfather was an architect, from the age of two he lived in CADIZ where he saw the LIGHT. From his father he inherited a spirit of ANALYSIS and from his mother the determination to be an ARCHITECT.

He lives in Madrid, where he moved to study Architecture. His first professor was Alejandro de la Sota, who instilled in him the ESSENTIAL architecture that he is still trying to erect. He is a PROFESSOR at the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured professor for more than 25 years.

He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And in Dublin and Naples, Virginia and Copenhagen. And at the BAUHAUS in Weimar and at Kansas State University. He spent a year as a research fellow at COLUMBIA University in New York in 2001 and again in 2011. He has given many lectures and has received many awards like the TORROJA for his Caja Granada building. And he was awarded the Buenos Aires Biennial 2009 for his Nursery for Benetton in Venice and his MA Museum in Granada. He has recently been nominated by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the prestigious Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of 2010.

His works have been widely recognized. From the single family houses Casa Turégano and Casa de Blas, both in Madrid, to Casa Gaspar, Casa Asencio and Casa Guerrero in Cádiz. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, the Centro BIT in Inca-Mallorca, the Caja de Granada Savings Bank and the MA, the Museum of Andalusian Memory, both in Granada, and a nursery for Benetton in Venice. And Between Cathedrals in Cádiz, and just recently a building for Offices in Zamora (2012). And the construction of the new Offices for Benetton in Samara, Russia, which is about to begin.

And more than 20 editions of a BOOK with his texts “LA IDEA CONSTRUÍDA” [THE BUILT IDEA] have been published in several languages. A fourth edition of “PENSAR CON LAS MANOS”, a second compilation of his writings, has just been published. And just now “PRINCIPIA ARCHITECTONICA”, a collection of his texts written during his sabbatical year at Columbia University in New York in 2011.

He believes in Architecture as a BUILT IDEA. And he believes that the principle components of Architecture are GRAVITY that constructs SPACE and LIGHT that constructs TIME.

He has exhibited his work in the CROWN HALL by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the PALLADIO Basilica in Vicenza. And in the Urban Center in New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul. In 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo made an anthological exhibition of his work that in 2011 was in the MAXXI in Rome.

Act.>. 04-2012
 

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Published on: January 11, 2016
Cite: "Constant white. Cala House by Alberto Campo Baeza" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/constant-white-cala-house-alberto-campo-baeza> ISSN 1139-6415
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