* Residential Architecture: X House by Cadaval & Solà-Morales

Residential Architecture: X House by Cadaval & Solà-Morales: “..This X-shaped house by architects Cadaval & Sola-Morales hangs over the edge of a hillside on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain..Aptly named X House, the two-storey residence is based on a simple rectilinear form but features four triangular recesses that create the X-shaped plan. One of these recesses allows the structure to avoid a nearby tree, while two others provide windows that avoid overlooking neighbouring houses and the fourth lengthens the glazed facade to offer a wider view of the surrounding landscape..”The form is not a priori, but an effort to give a unitary response that satisfies each of the questions that rose up in the design process,” explains Cadaval & Solà-Morales..The walls without glazing appear as solid, undecorated concrete and were set using a single-sided formwork. “[The house] accumulates in its skin the diverse and continuous knowledge acquired within the process of construction,” say the architects..Residents enter the house on the top floor by following a staircase around the edge of the pine tree and locating a door that is two metres below street level, alongside a garage for parking two cars..A bedroom, bathroom and study occupy two arms of the cross on this floor and overlook a double-height living room on the storey below..Downstairs, the living room and kitchen wrap around the facade to offer views out across over the hillside..”X House uses form to qualify spaces of very different nature and provide them with an individual character, always incorporating landscape as a main actor,” add the architects..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, views; very interesting form, interior volumes, contextuality on a steep site; roof terrace; very good photos, some by the excellent photographer Iwan Baan, in a 20-image slideshow accompanying the original article.

image: Sandra Pereznieto; article: Dezeen

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* Residential Architecture: Tepoztlan Lounge by Cadaval & Solà-Morales

Residential Architecture: Tepoztlan Lounge by Cadaval & Solà-Morales: “..Tepoztlan, is a small town nestled between rocky cliffs located to the south of Mexico City, 50 kilometers away from the vibrant metropolis. With its well preserved historic center and wild countryside, Tepoztlan is a town of legends and deep cultural roots that has been appreciated by writers, poets, artists and musicians over many decades, turning it into their hometown or weekend retreat. Located in this incredible context and surrounded by an astonishing landscape, the Tepoztlan Lounge is the first building completed of a larger project that also includes a series of bungalows of different sizes and designs, which can be rented by years, months or days..The lounge is set to be a central communal space for leisure in nature, and is located in the perimeter of an incredible lawn; the idiosyncrasy of the project relies on enabling the experience of the carefully manicured lawn while promoting the experience of the wild nature existing in the boundaries of this central space. The project is a negotiation between interior and exterior, a construction of an in-between condition, an inhabitable threshold, which becomes the main space of the project; the limits between the open and the content space merge to produce a single architectural entity..The design establishes three separate living quarters designed in accordance to the 3 activities planned; each of them is a set space defined by its use, but also by a very clear and simple architectural container: the first holds an open bar with a kitchenette, together with a couple of restrooms and dressing rooms; the second is a play area for children that can also be used as a reading room when temperatures drop at night; and finally the largest container is the living area, an enclosed, tempered and comfortable space for conversation, TV, etcetera.  But it is the desire to give continuity between these three separate areas where the project is empowered and becomes meaningful; a continuous space, in full contact with the nature but protected from its inclemency is set up not only to expand the enclosed uses, but also to allow new activities to arise..And it is through the definition of this central space, through the definition of its shape, that the contiguous courtyards are defined; those are as essential to the project as it is the built architecture, and allows constructing as a whole, single spatial experience. At the same time that the three built containers give continuity to the central space by mans of their use and space, the adjacent patios qualify it, while providing diversity and idiosyncrasy to open space. The design of the swimming pool is part of this same intervention, and responds to the desire to characterize the spaces; its formalization necessarily resonates the layout of the lounge, while incorporating to its nature the possibility of a multiplicity of ways of using water, and plunging on it..The building is located as a plinth valuing the views of the mountains. The building wants to be respectful to the existing context, and understands that the vegetation and life at open air are the real protagonist. Two impressive trees that are in place are incorporated within the layout of the lounge, as if they were part of the program itself. The Tepoztlan Lounge is constructed in concrete not just for being a inexpensive and labor intensive material in Mexico and to minimize its maintenance, but also to expose its structural simplicity and neutrality towards the astonishing nature..”  Ample glazing, natural light, nature views; interesting form, interior volumes, details and site integration; indoor / outdoor sensibility..

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image: © Sandra Pereznieto; article: ”Tepoztlan Lounge / Cadaval & Solà-Morales” 13 Nov 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/293132&gt;

* Residential Architecture: TDA House by Cadaval & Solà-Morales

Residential Architecture: TDA House by Cadaval & Solà-Morales: “..Where are the limits of materials? Are they in their apparently implicit properties or in our capacity to expand them? A Fresh house for extreme weather that surpasses the standard limits of comfort of the city-dweller; a low-cost house requiring minimum maintenance; a house for any number of habitants, flexible in its uses and configuration; a house that can open up completely to the exterior or close in on itself; a beach house that can be built in a distant corner of the world. The high temperatures, the saltpeter, and the unskilled labor force determined the use of concrete. Bridges, breakwaters, and dams are also made in concrete, because of its structural capabilities and its resistance under extreme conditions. This was the architect’s starting point, and the tectonic and morphological possibilities of the material contributed to the formal definition of the project..The section of the house, with its pronounced cantilevers, seeks to carry the expression of these qualities to the limit, but above all to adapt itself to the specific conditions of the context. Three elements are defined for three distinct conditions: a tower volume which, in search of the sea, interrupts its opacity at strategic points until it achieves complete openness at the level where nothing blocks its views over the Mexican Pacific; a second bedroom volume suspended over the water and the flowers of the garden; and a high, broad, airy, central space which distributes and channels the different activities going on in the house. These three elements merge into a single volume of uncertain scale and rough textures..The great constructed exterior, forming a threshold under the imposing cantilever, is the most important space of the house, its central focus. It has all the characteristics and potential of a made-to-measure interior: connected with the spacious central core of the house, protected by the balance and rigor of the constructed object, but at the same time supplied with light, water, and air, close to the lush tropical vegetation and colors that contrast with the neutrality of the concrete. All of this, suspended in the hammocks, reinforces the solidity of the structure and the ease with which it is inhabited..It is the experience of this interstitial space that defines the architectural intent of the design: life lived outside, in the open air, in community; a living photograph of the vital Mexican utopia, that is, a world of harmony, color, and nature, reflected in the swaying of hammocks and the pleasure of dolce far niente..”  Extensive glazing, natural light; cantilevers; interesting form and interior volumes and details; terraces..

See our post on another home by Cadaval & Solà-Morales: Residential Architecture: A Home in the Pyrenees by Cadaval & Sola-Morales.

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image: Santiago Garcés / Cadaval & Solà-Morales; article: ”TDA House / Cadaval & Solà-Morales” 09 Jan 2009. ArchDaily.  <http://www.archdaily.com/11437&gt;

* Residential Architecture: A Home in the Pyrenees by Cadaval & Sola-Morales

Residential Architecture: A Home in the Pyrenees by Cadaval & Sola-Morales: “..reused the shell of the preexisting stone farm house on the site; the structure, constructed of local stone, was solid enough to handle any unexpected tectonic rumblings. Long and lean, the streamlined shape is built to highlight the setting, with vertical slashes of glass down both sides and an angular expanse of glass in the front. The 4,800-square-foot space is separated into the couple’s quarters above, and a separate living area for the sons downstairs..”  Magnificent views..

image + article: Remodelista

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