The house designed by Jerez Arquitectos is organised in an L-shaped floor plan. The larger wing forms a complete dwelling, while the smaller wing provides a complementary space capable of adapting to the needs of the residents. The outdoor patio with a pool breaks the perpendicularity of the floor plan and creates an interesting dialogue between the exterior and interior.
The project's walls are mostly built with locally manufactured concrete bricks. The structure responsible for establishing the interior is also made of concrete, consisting of seven rectangular bays with spans measuring 6.3 x 4.5 meters. The arrangement of the openings, the south-facing orientation, and the thermal insulation achieve significant energy savings.
House K by Jerez Arquitectos. Photograph by Iñaki Bergera.
Project description by Jerez Arquitectos
The owner, a young woman, wanted the house to be adaptable to her needs over time. It had to be a changeable and versatile house, suitable for a single person, for several friends, for a family with children, for an elderly couple alone or with assistance, etc. We were looking for a house where you could live in a peaceful domestic environment, but where you could also work comfortably, in contact with the ground and nature, and with natural light in all the spaces. In short, it had to be a house that was adapted and adaptable, forever.
The site, initially complicated by its location and shape, was rather an opportunity to develop the project with greater intention and intensity. The plot, which is completely flat, is situated on the outskirts of the city, in an old village that is now a neighbourhood. To the north, the development borders a busy and noisy national road. To the south, on the other hand, the changing beauty of nature is revealed to us, with the sun and the beautiful views towards an old tree-lined millpond, which in turn borders a neighbouring social and sports club. The site is triangular in shape and narrows very much to the west, which complicated the physical occupation of this area.
These conditions led to the idea of a house that is almost completely enclosed to the north, to protect it from the cold weather and the noisy road, but very open to the south. The project, built mainly with concrete brick manufactured by a local company, is developed on a single L-shaped floor. The longer wing is a complete house in itself, while the shorter wing can accommodate various complementary activities or future needs.
The structure, made up of seven rectangular concrete bays measuring 6.3 x 4.5 metres, configures the different spaces, some of which can be used for different purposes, interchangeable and grouped together as required. A small tree-lined courtyard, protected by a brick lattice that allows its presence to be sensed from the outside, gathers the accesses from the north and creates a wide crack between the two perpendicular parts, to later reveal the main space of the house, elongated, luminous and completely open to the southern garden by means of a glass plane protected by external blinds. This type of mobile elements, together with the high level of thermal insulation of the entire envelope and the carefully studied orientation and layout of the openings, help to achieve high energy efficiency. The spaces initially intended for bedrooms, which can also house work, library or play areas, are oriented towards small side gardens, appropriating voids that would otherwise be unusable. All the spaces have natural light, either from the façades or through skylights in the roof.
