Casa Siena EN

Casa Siena

The plot is located in an urban residential fabric with low density, which is surrounded by natural areas and it is close to the sea. A big part of the sector is shaped by plots with considerable slopes. The initial inspection of the site and its surroundings, underlined that the most dwellings followed the same premise: to be placed in the highest place of the plot, by a as wide as possible transversal volumetry, letting the rest of the plot be a garden in slope, in fact with a difficult use and with a little relationship with the interior spaces.

Based on the previous consideration, came up the premise that the building architecture had to belong to the landscape, getting a correct integration with the natural surrounding. Although the strong slope of the plot, the different spaces that form the project would be able to have a visual or a direct relation with the land. So that instead of fill in, we preferred a soft adaptation of the land, in several levels, so the big part of the non built space would be useful and would be part of the project as an equal to the building.

As for the project, it is renounced to set the building in the highest part of the plot and it is proposed an implantation according with the slope, by an adaptation to the different topographic levels that compose the outside spaces: in order to get useful outdoor spaces and set up the relation with the interior spaces. With this decision, it is proposed a longitudinal volumetry, where the last slab of the building is located almost a floor under the surrounding buildings. The original trees are preserved and the building emerges with simple frames, less aggressive with the surroundings and with the purpose of being an architecture that dwell the landscape.

The dwelling articulates its spatial structure by a vertical communication nucleus as a principal object that acts as an activity container, which includes auxiliary objects that set up the built ensemble. The daylight basement includes the parking lot, the wellness area and storage and system spaces. The ground floor includes the night area: several rooms and bathrooms. The first floor includes the day area: sitting room, kitchen, dining room and guest space. The volume located above the day floor includes the studio and a terrace. Interiors are planned to be simple, comfortable and practical. The treatment for the non built space alternate original and new vegetation, paved areas with stones, wood, grass and a pool. All in all, all projected with the wish that the surrounding vegetation would be perceived as touching the building.

Building has been built according to passive architecture criteria: different spaces are pointed to the surrounding views and the light control is worked in detail by openings, corbels, solar protection elements and skylights. We also take advantage of the rainwater for the irrigation, using a buried tank. At the same time, great part of vegetation in Mediterranean and local, so that it means a big energy and maintenance saving. Every space of the building has the chance to cross ventilation, considering that all rooms have openings to both exterior facade and patio. Regarding energy demand minimization, it has been firstly treated by creating different facade thickness depending on each orientation, according to local climate. Energy demand has also been treated by an integrated climate-controlled that use solar energy for the energy consumption reduction.

Regarding materials used in the project, they have been simple, natural and local produce, whith the will of reducing to minimum the environmental and landscape impact.

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