Villa Azul House / Projects / Studio FI

Far from the city, the house was supposed to be of simple construction and have large outdoor areas, which should not only serve as a home for a nearly retired couple, but also to take advantage of their new stage of life, functioning as a space to gather family and friends on a regular basis. It should be a festive house, with space to entertain many guests and host visitors, while maintaining a domestic scale for everyday use.

The main characteristics of the project revolve around three recurring themes in architecture, which were particularly important in this case:

I – EARTH MOVEMENTS

Anyone thinking about building on slopes will face the problem of creating flat surfaces. In this case, the couple wanted a single large surface, despite the hilly topography of the place, to create a single-story house, with accessible garden areas, on the same level, and thus a huge earthwork was necessary before starting the project. Therefore, the earth movements created a large area of exposed soil, where the house would be built. This area already lost whatever little vegetation it had, and it will take time to recover its fertility.

II – PILLARS

In this context of already modified topography, we stared to imagine the structure of the house. Thus, we thought about using old wooden crossties – which we knew the clients already possessed – to create the structure that organizes the entire house. However, this main structure was not the house itself, but rather a garden from which the house emerges: a large plant pergola supported by wooden crossties. These wooden crossties were extracted many years ago from ancient trees, treated with toxic products, and laid horizontally to build railways. In other words, these crossties served to create flat surfaces with the same purpose as the house’s terrace: to make horizontal movement efficient, whether for the house’s residents or, originally, for the train. In the house, however, the crossties were re-erected – in memory of the tree trunks that they once were –, and will once again serve as support – as they once did in their life –, for epiphytic plants, such as orchids or bromeliads, which survive without contact with the land – currently degraded by the excavations – and which only appear in forests under the shade of trees like those that were cut down to make the crossties. Thus, the house’s first garden arises from the artificial creation of conditions that allow the life of plants who inhabit mature forests, which would take decades or hundreds of years to sprout naturally, while the rest of the land can recover its fertility in time with a new garden.

III – WALLS AND ROOFS

The pergola was arranged in an “L” shape on the terrace, uniting the main building and the guest annex by means of a double gallery of pillars. This arrangement also created the delimitation of an area between the pergola and the large excavation embankment, thus configuring two large regions on the esplanade, a frontal one open to the view and a more protected patio. From the pergola emerges the rest of the house’s structure, made up of two simples and contrasting types of material: a light metal beam roof that rests on heavy stone and concrete walls. Between these walls we placed the more “closed” spaces, such as bathrooms, storage or intimate balconies. The rest of the living is located outside these walls, with high ceilings and large openings to the outside. The walls, of artisanal construction and with arches – which almost appear as if they have existed before, or were discovered during excavation – make it difficult, together with other elements, such as the curved pool, to perceive the strict modulation of the entire house, which was created from the standard length of the crossties (2.80m). The modulation allowed to simplify construction, making it possible to standardize numerous elements, such as metal parts or window frames, allowing for the repetition of building processes during execution.