Causana House / ODA – Oficina de Arquitectos Lanzone – Gabarro
Causana House / ODA – Oficina de Arquitectos Lanzone – Gabarro
Text description provided by the architects. Located on a corner lot of 2500m2, the house rests horizontally in the mountain landscape. The organization of the construction arises from thinking of it in three parallel strips with well-defined characteristics. To the south, the first strip is solid and closed, with limited perforations that frame scenes of the distant landscape. The central strip is neutral and open, ready to adapt to the different uses of the family. And finally, to the north, the third strip is noble and lightweight, full of light and spaciousness that connects us to the landscape of thorns and carob trees; allowing everyday activities to expand outward.
A small break and displacement of the strips define the social and the private, allowing gradients of intimacy. Entering the house is the result of this stagger. Many houses within the same house… closed and open, solid and lightweight, neutral and noble.
The journey begins with a beautiful carob tree in the corner; on the side, a concrete ribbon on the ground provokes us to walk; further on, an aerial and upper beam frames the sky and invites us to continue. The house dissolves, and the void shows its concrete soul. The mountain landscape is left behind, and now many grays of different textures envelop it.
Inside, everything flows towards the northern sun, and the spaces of enjoyment flow continuously one after another. Designed to receive, celebrate, gather, and contemplate. Just as they need them, these spaces are simple in timeless language, they are ready to be lived, used, and inhabited by the family that imagined them. On the opposite side, the private spaces, more enclosed and individual, are also open to the north.
The structure is the architecture, or vice versa. They are one. The ordered and rigorous pieces are few. From bottom to top. At one end, a concrete beam sinks into the ground, starting buried and ending at the opposite end barely supported. The beam levels the only plane of the house. There are many walls to the south, the rest are located transversely delimiting the spaces. Finally, at the top, some heavy concrete beams fly in the sky. They play at being lightweight in the air. They finish off gray and forceful, long and continuous underlining the blue sky. Together, they emphasize the horizontality of the construction.
Playing with the contrast of meanings between Heavy (the material, the solid) and Ethereal (the immaterial, the void). This house invited us, once again, to think and reflect on the relationships between light and shadow, landscape and architecture, matter and structure. The possibilities are many, for this house only one. Like a stone resting on the grass. A silent and simple stone.
