Architecture studio DABG/deAbajoGarcia adapted to the site's conditions and proposed for Creneas a main structure based on a steel truss resting on the concrete walls of the basement, respecting the existing vegetation. Furthermore, it resolves the main spaces with a CLT timber structure, focusing on spatial quality and orientation, embracing the preexisting elements with its geometry and organizing the floor plan into two halves.
In Creneas, the decision was made to open the rooms to the garden, creating a gallery protected by a practicable latticework that allows residents to enjoy all the spaces, both interior and exterior, and connect them with each other and with their surroundings. The structure frees up the entire space, allows for a generous influx of light and optimal ventilation, and brings residents closer to their immediate surroundings thanks to sustainable and innovative construction decisions.
Creneas by DABG/deAbajoGarcia. Photograph by Montse Zamorano.
Project description by DABG/deAbajoGarcia
The tectonic logics of Creneas reflect the ability of architecture to address challenges in an expanded context. Although the scale of a single-family home is small, this condition facilitates a direct approach to global issues, reflections on the modes of living and new construction approaches.
The project relies on an industrialized construction system and dry assemblies as means to optimize resources and reduce emissions, minimizing the generation of waste and incorporating the logic of the life cycle of materials in response to the demands of the climate emergency.
Creneas adds this interest to the particularities of the context. In this case, the difficulties of the site forced to reduce the impact of the foundation on the ground. For this reason, the main structure is a steel truss, which rests at two points on the concrete walls of a basement that occupies 50% of the surface, respecting the roots of the existing trees. The rest of the structure cantilevers in two directions and the slabs that complete the ground floor are braced by means of tensile rods. The light structure of the first floor rests on the truss. Its geometry subtly embraces the water well and the elm at the entrance. The central support axis organizes the floor in two parts. Taking into account the spatial quality generated by the free heights, the orientation and the infrastructural requirements, the main spaces are resolved with an exposed CLT wood structure, and open to the light from the south.
The servant spaces are organized in the northern half, with steel sheet slabs through which all the installations are channeled. The work went through multiple unforeseen events, its start being cut short by the arrival of the pandemic. Once started, the supply crisis and successive price increases made both the purchase of wood and the execution of the truss difficult. It was a small company that, by breaking up the structure into smaller parts to facilitate its manufacture in the workshop and transport to the site with the available means, made its execution viable.
The entire façade was executed in a very short time with an industrialized dry assembly system. Spatially, the rooms that open onto the garden are particularly noteworthy: the living room - of large vertical dimensions - with a large window, interrupted only by the tensors that support the slab and the bedrooms on the upper floor, which overlook a gallery protected from the sun by a practicable wooden lattice. The unique structure allows the entire space to be freed up and the program informs the decisions on the filling for a residential solution.
