Casa Sofía / CASTILLO + VALDIVIESO arquitectos

Casa Sofía / CASTILLO + VALDIVIESO arquitectos

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Text description provided by the architects. A simple geometry with homogeneous and continuous textures makes this project a contemporary and unique composition in its immediate context. Designed as a house that runs horizontally across the lot as an elongated structure with a low height, in order not to overload the surrounding environment. In this way, the floor is built slightly above the ground and on a single level. From the beginning, the spirit that guided the entire project was to achieve a permanent dialogue between the interior and the exterior, the materials being responsible for achieving said union with the particularity of not being altered in order to provide a natural aesthetic with a robust character both in interior and exterior design.

All the rooms are designed following the same decorative trail, connected to the garden by sliding doors that allow the pool to be seen from any point of the house. The space is distributed on two surfaces: the first one of 158m2 that borders the service area, the social area and the resting area; and, the second one of 41m2 that limits the complementary humid areas to the pool. Three bedrooms with private bathrooms cover the program of the resting area, while, the social area houses the kitchen, dining room and living room, plus an extension of the covered patio that merges with the barbecue. The humid area includes a jacuzzi, a Turkish bath, a pool, a laundry room and a storage space with the pool functioning as the axis of spatial distribution. The structure, made of metal, is part of the geometric composition of the project and defines the general configuration of the house with a modulation of multiples of three, developing a successive sequence of porticoes that support the thermoacoustic roof itself that is lost in the finish of the volumetric composition of the work. Surrounded by a placid and grandiose landscape, the house combines modernity and popular architecture. A sensitive interior design also encourages the house to become a secluded and intimate world with warm textures, while open to the green and ocher beauty of the landscape.

The contrast produced by the rough texture of the exposed masonry makes the brick a sensitive and noble material that the inhabitants can experience in situ, making it the “machine of inhabiting” that Le Corbusier spoke of when referring to domestic housing – a project breaking the pre-established schemes. Finally, the coordinated coexistence of materials makes it possible to highlight the simplicity of the building, whose skin decisively enhances the composition of the design and the lighting of the interior. The environments are integrated with rays of light full of warmth where the architectural actions emphatically manage to discover the nuances of the furniture and decoration, all composed in a set of planes that are in harmony and show absolute dominance over the spaces, contrasting with the robustness and personality of the walls that contain them. In summary, clarity, luminosity, austerity and simplicity define this work, which claims with its features and forceful architectural elements a presence of its own in the valley that surrounds it.