2016 MCHAP
M House
Estudio Aire
Rosario, Argentina
March 2014
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Juan Germán Guardati Román Renzi
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Virginia Kahanoff (architect) Valeria Del Vecchio (architect) Gustavo Sattler (accountant)
CLIENT
Marcela Monaco
PHOTOGRAPHER
Walter Salcedo
OBJECTIVE
The spatial reaction of formal operations makes the strongest argument of this work. A simple rectangular base volume suffers a cut and a horizontal displacement. Thereby, space is more complex and is still controlled morphology. Two measures control the heights of the house, from 0 to 2.2m the walls and openings are defined and from there to the 4.40 the roof space is generated. Consequently it appears as a sinuous topography on the head of the occupants and contrasting to the plain land of the Pampas. All this becomes more dramatic thanks to the manipulation of natural light that filters through the skylights. From the street the house becomes tight but from the inner perception is a counterpoint. The program develops private activities within the lower boxes, bedrooms and bathrooms are grouped in the greater volume and kitchen, laundry and storage in two smaller ones. Public house activities are bounded by the offset that produces the ceiling and a large glass wall of different opacities (transparent toward the back of the lot and translucent sideways). The use of exposed concrete combines supports structure spatial structure and expression of the house. This material used primarily in the outside became the inner boundary of the common area. The space experience is generated by a very synthetic material performance with strong contrasts.
CONTEXT
M house is located in a new urbanization in the suburbs of Rosario City. The main contextual strategy is to make a monolithic solid box towards the street to preserve indoor-familiar space. The weather in this spot is warm most of the year, that is why the house has a large gallery. This type of rooms is present in the traditional houses of the country. This project looks forward to create a new answer for an old situation. The public program of the dwelling is facing the artificial lake. The best orientation for natural light and ventilation are perpendicular to that direction and designed in the upper part of the house from 2.4 m to the roof.
PERFORMANCE
The particular tectonic appearance of the house fit with the heterogenic architectonic general aspect of the whole neighborhood. There is no restriction for formal decisions in these new urbanizations that is why the project experience became a challenge with another situations like the willing to re think the traditional local houses. The house is designed for an artist, that is why the general atmosphere should travelling from architecture to sculpture. The shape abstraction made a great contrast to organic existing nature.