Constructively the Patio House has been taken into account the temperatures that are reached in this coastal area, and for this sustainably have been applied construction systems that allow good interior habitability, through; cross-ventilation, chimney effect, zenithal light, large protected openings to the south, insulation, stratified protections, lattice protection in openings to the west, breathable materials and passive air conditioning systems.
Description of project by Baum Arquitectura
A HOUSE PATIO ON THE BEACH.
In an area of single-family houses, with an urbanism that has significantly denigrated public space as a place for social relations, this project sought a house capable of generating its universe. The starting hypothesis bet on a house articulated around an axis of transparency hallway-patio-library, which introduced principles of the traditional Andalusian house, without renouncing the freer approaches of a house on the coast. A domestic space at the same time turned towards itself and the garden, simultaneously centripetal and centrifugal, with a vocation to achieve interior comfort through passive strategies of sustainability.
Since the "developmentalism" of the 60s and 70s, summer residences began to diverge from the more and more restricted spatial and typological solutions that were gradually imposed on the first residences.
Despite having deeply parasitized the Spanish coasts, with the well-known ecological consequences, sometimes even catastrophic, in their formal configuration, these beach architectures seemed unprejudiced, free, capable of developing less variegated typologies, with more open spaces, larger terraces (often subjected to the liberating slavery of the search for sea views) or with more complex relationships between public and private, interior and exterior or intimate and social.
The users of these dwellings accepted this temporary state of exception in which the strict domestic behaviors, deeply rooted in Spanish culture, were partially suspended during the summer. In our collective memory, the "beach house" was governed by more lax rules, which allowed eating with the torso uncovered, always eating lunch outside, napping for hours, or putting mattresses for cousins in the living room.
This project seeks to recover this deeply versatile and vital spirit of summer houses, and then reintroduce ideas from traditional Andalusian housing, with Roman and Muslim roots: the omnipresent courtyard, the hallway, the lattices, the sequences of chiaroscuro.
The new post-pandemic world order, much more open to teleworking, has ended up turning this second home into a first residence. The adaptability of the projected spaces allowed this transformation organically.
The floor plan is developed on a system of parallel bands, which delimit the public and private, social, and intimate uses while allowing long visual perspectives and double circulations around the courtyard. A large living-dining-kitchen area is protected from excessive radiation by a porch conceived as an outdoor living room, while providing a more prominent central space, with indirect light entering through skylights. The cross ventilation induced by these facing upper openings ensures suction in the upper layers and a permanent flow of fresh air from the courtyard.
Natural materials have been used. For the vertical faces: brushed walnut wood, exposed concrete screens with wood formwork, or lime whitewash. For the pavements: Portuguese mosaic, in continuity from the entrance of the plot to the library (polished on the inside and rough on the outside) and polished concrete. The floor slabs, made of concrete beams and curved ceramic vaults, have been whitewashed and left exposed to the air.
SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES
Cross-ventilations
Openings to opposite facades promote currents by pressure gradients. According to the Givoni diagram, for the climatic conditions of Isla Cristina, the moving air alone guarantees comfort on many days of the year.
Chimney effect
The space at a higher height in the living room, with motorized openings on opposite facades, generates an upper current from side to side, which induces suction currents by the chimney effect.
Overhead lighting
The living-dining-kitchen space is flooded with indirect zenithal light from the two upper skylights. The opening to the north is completely free and the opening to the south is protected by a cantilever. This significantly reduces the hours during which it is necessary to use electric light.
In the library, a skylight is protected by concrete louvers.
Large openings protected to the south
Maximum solar gain is sought in the cooler months and minimum solar gain in the warmer months. The large opening to the garden ensures this effect and allows the accumulation of energy by thermal inertia in the mass of the lower slab.
Insulation
Thermal bridges are minimized with a reinforced through-brick façade in front of the façade. The insulation of the roof (the most exposed face of the volume) is increased to 10 cm.
Layered protections
Complex enclosure on the porch resolved to utilize various superimposed layers: sliding curtain, perforated sheet metal enclosure, double laminated glazing with low emissivity film. This allows multiple climatic configurations of this cushion space.
Protective lattice in west-facing openings
The openings to the west are protected by prefabricated concrete elements.
Breathable materials
The cladding is made of lime whitewash.
Air conditioning
A highly efficient air conditioning system is installed: aerothermal energy with solar thermal contribution, although passive strategies have proven to be highly effective and it has only been necessary to activate it a few days a year.
