Looking out for intimacy. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk

A clear house with a single volume of exposed concrete, whose wraparound opens towards the rear green space and is protected towards the exterior space of the street.

CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Casa BLQ is located in the Nuevo Quilmes neighborhood, located at the exit of km 17 of the highway that links Buenos Aires with La Plata, and was desing by Buenos Aires-based Luciano Kruk architecture studio.

The family expressed special emphasis was put on the fact that the house should be sheltered from the street and look out for intimacy in the private areas.

Description of project by Arch. Mariana Piqué

BLQ House is located in the Nuevo Quilmes gated community, on the kilometer 17 off-ramp of the highway that links the cities of Buenos Aires and La Planta.

Being so close to the center of Buenos Aires, the community shows an average urban density and its plots of land are relatively small.

Originally free of vegetation, the lot is an irregular quadrangular polygon, with a diagonal line parallel to the street cutting its front.

The commissioner, a couple with two children, asked to have their permanent residence built by the Studio, and requested that it should include an en suite master bedroom with its dressing room and two secondary bedrooms sharing a bathroom. The program also called for a studio linked to the social areas of the house and that the father would use his working space. The family expressed their desire for the house to have a generous outdoor gallery equipped with a grill. Special emphasis was put on the fact that the house should be sheltered from the street and look out for intimacy in the private areas.

The Studio designed a single exposed concrete volume occupying the site’s maximum building width longitudinally and whose shell would open towards the green space at the back of the site.

Organized at the front of the house, the spaces housing the entrance area, circulations and washing rooms separate the street from the nobler programmatic uses set on the rear and endowed with openings towards the sky and the garden.

Not only did the concrete’s structural system serve the house as a supporting skeleton, it also functioned as a space organizer.

Set longitudinally along the volume’s length, two parallel continuous beams support the slab over the ground floor, and the same structure is replicated over the first floor. Blind walls at the sides of the house both provide privacy to the inside and underpin these wide spanned beams. While allowing greater freedom when designing the front and rear openings, the rigid frame structure configuration of the house makes it possible to generate a big free floor plan central space housing a unified living room and dining area. Being also a beam, the great concrete cover on the front of the house permits transparent openings on the ground floor, allowing visual fluidity between the garden and the street. The private rooms on the first floor are strongly related to the outside through their glazed surfaces, and the master bedroom expands towards a private outdoor space with generous views towards the garden.

Regarding passive solar control, the concrete cover on the front thermally protects the southeastern side of the house, the least sunny one. On the back, above the outdoor expansion of the private rooms, while a series of vertical cantilevered partitions function as shades that shelter the inside against the sunlight from the west, a horizontal eave that goes all along the house’s width protects them from the north sunrays. This outdoor expansion on the first floor acts as roof for the gallery downstairs. Being a transition between the social areas inside and the green space outside, it graduates the passage from one sector to the other, at once protecting the inside from the outside weather and allowing social activities in a sheltered outdoor space.

Clarity in the house’s tectonic means, simplicity in its construction and purity in its materials were aimed at. The use of concrete made it possible to organize, expand, fluidify, free, and open the space as well as link it with its surroundings. Following Mies’s conception of architecture as the expression of structure, the house’s supporting skeleton and its spatiality were integrated into formal unity.

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Main façade. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Façade looking out for intimacy in the private areas. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Detail. Façade looking out for intimacy in the private areas. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

View from access. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

View from street. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Staircase interior view. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

View from first level. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Living room view. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Bedroom view. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk. Photograph by Daniela Mac Adden

Axonometric view. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk.

Groun floor plan. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk.

First floor plan. CASA BLQ by Luciano Kruk.

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More information

Label

Architects

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Archtiect.- Luciano Kruk. Project Manager.- Arch. Ekaterina Künzel. Construction Manager.- Pablo Magdalena

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Collaborators

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Arq. Andrés Conde Blanco, Arq. Belén Ferrand, Denise Andreoli, Dan Saragusti
Text.- Arq. Mariana Piqué

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Area

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Land area.- 1.000 m². Built area.- 200 m²

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Dates

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Construction year.- 2017

Luciano Kruk Arquitectos

Luciano Kruk was born on July 20, 1974, in Buenos Aires and in 2000 got a degree in Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires, where he taught Project until 2009. Nowadays, he continues to develop his academic activity as Visiting Professor. As such, he has been invited by the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM-UPM); Iuav University of Venice; UNIVALI of Santa Catarina, in Brazil; USJT of São Paulo, in Brazil; and the Argentinian universities of San Martín (USAM), of Congreso (UC), in Mendoza, and of San Juan (UNSJ), where he conducted a post-graduate seminar. He has also given seminars and lectures at different conference series in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy.

He is a member of the architectural advisory committee at the National Commission of University Assessment and Accreditation (CONEAU). He is also a member of the Jury of the Province of Buenos Aires Association of Architects (CAPBA) and has participated as evaluator in the 2013 Biennial held by the Association.

Between 2000 and 2012, Luciano was a partner at BAKarquitectos architecture office (Besonías-Almeida-Kruk), where his work gained much recognition: among other awards, he received First Prize for Individual Housing Project at the 2007 and 2009 Biennials held by CAPBA; the Special Prize Eduardo Sacrite presented by CAPBA in 2005; First Prize from Alucobond for Young Architecture in 2005; and the Great Prize at the CPAU/SCA Biennial in 2006.

In 2012 he founded Luciano Kruk arquitectos architectural office, where he has been carrying out numerous individual and collective housing projects.

In 2015, Luciano was chosen as a representative for Argentina in the 9th International Festival of Architecture and Urbanism “Architecture Week Prague 2015”, which took place in Prague, Check Republic. His works have been published in numerous specialized media both in Argentina and abroad, in different countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

He has been invited as professor at the following universities:
-Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM-UPM), ETSAM, 2016 -Iuav University of Venice, Italy, Workshop WAVE Cicle 2012. -USJT of São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2011) -National University of San Juan, Argentina (2013) -University Univalí, Santa Catarina, Brazil (2014). -University of San Martin, Argentina (2015).

He has lectured in the following cycles:
- Cycle Design Patagonia, 2007, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Neuquén. - Lecture Series 2007, Professional Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Buenos Aires. - Pos seminar graduation USJT, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2011. - International Architecture Congress ARQEX, Merida, Mexico, 2014 - International Congress of Architecture, Mendoza, Argentina, 2015.

Outstanding Awards: - First Prize for Franz House (2012) in SCA “Sociedad Central de Arquitectos”, Buenos Aires, Argentina. - Prize for Architectural Planning for JD House (2011), Bienal of Architecture of Buenos Aires and Chamber of Architects, Buenos Aires, Argentina. - Architecture Award ARQ Argentina (2011) for House Cher, Mention in the category Smaller Scale. - Prize for Architecture, Planning, Research and Theory for “Beach House” (2009), Chamber of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. -Second Prize Competition “Architecture and Brick” for “Brick House, XII BA09 International Biennial of Architecture in Buenos Aires, Argentina. - Third Honorable Mention for Concrete House (2008) XVI BAQ Arqutecture Biennial, Pan Quito, Ecuador. - First Biennial Prize for Architecture Planning, Research and Theory (2007) for Concrete House, Chamber of Architcts of the Province of Buenos Aires. - Grand Prix Biennial CPAU / SCA (2006) for “House Blue Sea” Professional Council of Architecture and Urbanism of the City of Buenos Aires and Central Society of Architects. - Architecture Biennale Award Sacriste Planning, Research and Theory (2005) for “House Blue Sea” Chamber of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires. - First Young Architecture Prize in 2005, organized by Alucobond.

Outstanding exhibitions:
-The 9th Festival of Architecture and Urbanism ¨Architecture Week Prague 2015¨, Prague, Czech Republic - Display Recent Work Argentina for Concrete House, COAM Foundation (Colegio Oficial Arquitectos Madrid) January 2011. Madrid, Spain. - XVII Pan American Biennial of Architecture of Quito, November 2010. “Beach House” and “US Building”. - Biennial Prize SCA / CPAU 2010, Malba, October 2010. ”Beach House”, ”US Building”. - IV International Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism "Habitat + Inclusion" Museum Complex of the City of Lujan, November 2009. - XII International Biennial of Architecture in Buenos Aires (XII BA09), September 2009. “Building US” , and “Blue Sea”. - XII Congress Arquisur, National University of Mar del Plata, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Design, Mar del Plata, October 2008. Concrete House. - 11th International Venice Biennale of Architecture, September / November 2008. Concrete House. - XVI Pan American Biennial of Architecture of Quito, November 2008. Concrete House. - 7th Architecture Biennale in Sao Paulo in December 2007. Casa Mar Azul and Concrete House. - XI International Biennial of Architecture in Buenos Aires (XI BA07), September 2007. Concrete House, Casa Mar Azul and Casa Pilar.

Published on: August 20, 2018

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