The house designed by José Manuel Martínez Rodríguez proposes a twist on the usual solution of single-family housing on small plots, so that the general and the particular have the same importance, following a single spatial idea that conditions the functional, formal and constructive organization: the patio.
The project is developed using a prefabricated structure of pine wood and wooden frames, minimizing the environmental impact of the construction and taking advantage of the qualities of wood as a sustainable material, while adapting to its environment.
Urban cortijo-house by José Manuel Martínez Rodríguez. Photograph by Juan Carlos Lagares.
Project description by José Manuel Martínez Rodríguez
Chiclana de la Frontera is a town located south of the Bay of Cadiz. During the 50s and 60s it remained outside the tourist construction boom, and maintained a certain balance between landscape and construction, with developments of small single-family homes that grew on the coast located between the pine forests of La Barrosa and Sancti Petri.
Located in the Los Gallos-Cerromolino development, close to the Sancti Petri marsh, the house occupies a small plot of 500 m². It has a rectangular geometry with a gentle slope to the south. It has a lush alignment of large pine trees on its north and west sides that define the character of the place. Access is via a narrow street flanked by plots delimited by whitewashed factory enclosure walls, with a building inside.
The site benefits from a mild oceanic climate, with an average annual temperature of 18 degrees. The holiday atmosphere of the area, added to the environmental saturation caused by the heat, the proximity of the wetland and the characteristic winds of Levante and Poniente, define the physical conditions.
The housing program requested by the owner is developed mainly on a single floor and responds to the needs of living and working, integrating spaces for socializing, resting and studying.
The project strategy proposes a turnaround on the usual solution of single-family homes on small plots, characteristic of neighboring constructions, of accumulating pavilions or houses in the center of their plots. Where there is full space, there is empty space, the views/lights of the facade over the enclosing walls are transformed into open views to an interior space, guaranteeing at the same time the conservation of all the pines, negotiating without concessions the space of a small plot and resolving the needs required by the owner.
The traditional architecture of the area, whether in farmhouses and country houses or in the historic centres of Chiclana, Vejer or Jerez de la Frontera, offers both the typology and the appropriate atmosphere, similar to the white villages of Cadiz and to the native materials.
It is about specifying all the conditions in a totalising idea in such a way that the general and the particular have the same importance. The project is thus summarised in a single spatial idea that conditions the functional, formal and constructive organisation.
The house with a patio is part of the western tradition, mainly Mediterranean. The Roman house, the Andalusian houses and the cloisters are spaces of privacy and control. In the traditional architecture of the area the patio is the central space of the house to which all the rooms are directed. Everything happens in the patio. There are vines with grapes from Jerez, orange trees from Cordoba, ponds with water and fountains. For this reason we put forward the idea of a Hortus Conclusus, a space enclosed by an inhabited wall.
This introverted patio evoked the old patios we visited in the houses of Chiclana, with lots of light, vegetation, and the sound of a jet of water falling from a well tap.
The house is a narrow ring developed between three concentric walls around a patio, with a tower in the corner that opens up views of the marsh and the pine forests of Sancti Petri.
The exterior façade of this ring is very closed, with several small openings, and two or three larger ones that correspond to the entrance hall and an open porch to the south that frames and highlights the pine trees at the back of the plot.
All the life of the house is turned towards the interior of the patio. Everything happens through the patio. The climate allows you to pass from one area to another through the exterior. A staircase connects the patio with a small studio and a roof terrace from which you can see the sea of pine trees in the bay of Sancti Petri.
The building is separated from the neighbouring plots just enough, the minimum required by municipal regulations for separation from boundaries, and is occupied by pine trees on the north and west sides and a new line of fruit trees characteristic of the area; an orange tree, a lemon tree, a grapefruit tree and a pomegranate tree.
The construction of the house is carried out using a prefabricated pine wood structure, with load-bearing walls made of wooden frames and forgings of transverse joists. This construction system, light and efficient, adapts perfectly to the environment, minimising the environmental impact and taking advantage of the qualities of wood as a sustainable material. Prefabricated construction also allows for greater speed in execution and precise quality control.
