In relation to the interior, it is a flexible structure that is nuanced by the programme. A strip of services next to a small access courtyard isolates the house from the street. The various openings configure a space with different shades of light.
Description of project by Roberto Lebrero + Borja Gómez
Frumales is a small village located in a pine valley in Segovia, Spain. Frumales’ beautiful city center is surrounded by farmlands and stone-made country houses. The site results from the aggregation of three lots containing masonry-ruined buildings.
The ruins are inhabited through a design that embraces the place and the value of the old material. It sets this as a starting point. Reusing the material, understanding old local construction techniques and choosing the right structural system leads to the final solution. Through a structural concrete frame, the livable plane is elevated above the terrain. This structural frame sets the master line from which a light self-standing wood structure defines the light roofing. This wood-frame structure is carefully designed, cut and set in place in order to define the geometry, volume and materiality of the space. The multilayered stone façade surrounds the building providing excellent insulation and thermal inertia. The ceiling height and the location of the openings provide either cross-ventilation or chimney effect when requested.
The interior is designed as an open, flexible space filled with the program. Aside the street, the functional program is set, towards the patio the private spaces are located. The room’s height is limited by the use of the «sobrado segoviano». The windows are carefully set to capture views and light, allowing multiple cross-views. The spatial sequence provided by the patio, terrace and garden interlaces interior and exterior through a series of intermediate spaces that provide cross-views, transparencies and reflections.
Faced with the harsh climate of the Castilian plateau, active and passive climate strategies are used to achieve an A energy rating, minimizing energy consumption to the maximum and providing optimum thermal comfort in the interior. The house is covered with generous insulation, eliminating thermal bridges and forming high inertia enclosures that take advantage of the thermal oscillation between day and night. The ceiling height together with the arrangement of openings facilitates cross ventilation or the chimney effect depending on the season, while a central fireplace produces and distributes heat throughout the house during the cold months.
