The functional areas are located at the most convenient points, alla maniera palladiana (in the Palladian way). In the semi-basement, the basamento rustico, the service areas. In the piano nobile, the ground floor, the foyer, the kitchen and the dining room and a more intimate living room and other quarters. In the mezzanina, the first floor, the parents' and the children's bedrooms. And right at the top, near the sky, an attempt to catch a piece of the sky: a unique, transparent, continuous space, a large urn under a large shady roof. A glass urn that is slightly set back from the sides and a little farther back from one of them, creating a generous open porch. Seventh heaven!
Rotonda House by Alberto Campo Baeza. Photograph by Javier Callejas
Project description by Alberto Campo Baeza
Situated at the very summit of a hill north of Madrid, with the sierra as a backdrop in the distance, a house for Ana.
Once again, we are trying to build the loveliest house in the world.
And to capture that 360º panoramic landscape, we propose a belvedere at the top of the house where one feels in seventh heaven.
Supporting this belvedere, we will build a two-storey podium made of Campaspero limestone, in which we will carve out the required openings for windows providing light and ventilation to the rooms.
Geometrically the structure is based on a 12×12 m square, divided into nine 4×4 m squares. Like an exercise from Durand’s “Précis des leçons d’Architecture”. With a certain Palladian flavor.
On the south-facing ground floor, a spacious living room, protected by a light veranda where vines and jasmines will grow. The floor plan will extend to a pool at the edge. On the north facade will be the main entrance to the house. Alongside it, the large kitchen and the dining room. In the centre of that floor, a 4×4 m square general hallway through which the staircase and the elevator will be accessed.
On the upper floor, the bedrooms at all four corners. Three identical bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, and a larger master bedroom with a dressing-room.
And supporting this construction in the steep topography of the hill will be a concrete podium, in a colour matching the stone, to house the garage, storage and service areas.
