House for a family of felines and canines
The project is based on two fundamental premises. The first of them was the intention to restore the plot to its natural landscape condition. This landscape condition is denied by the urban zoning process, which transforms the land into something that is no longer a mountain or valley but a series of numbered plots characterized by parameters that have no connection with its original essence, such as its biodiversity, drainage capacity, resilience, etc.; instead, they focus on its new condition as an urban product, such as square meters, buildability, and occupancy percentage. We conducted a study of the native fauna and flora in the area and the surrounding hills, paying special attention to the wild flora, rich in aromatic plants and perfectly adapted to the climate of Baeza (Jaén, Spain), requiring minimal maintenance and reducing its environmental impact. The goal of this preliminary study was to attempt to restore the rich landscape biodiversity of the site once construction was completed. In contrast to the tabula rasa, an environmental restoration process.
The second premise was to address, with a limited budget, a complex housing program for its two human occupants, Alex and Lurdes, as well as their other-than-human inhabitants, which include six dogs (Chica, Alex, Bruno, Rufo, Bimba, and Lisa), six cats (Odin, Audri, Lenin, Bety, Catherin, and Greta), and a Roomba. At a certain point in the project, an exciting discovery was made: Alex shared habits and preferences for elevated and secluded spaces with the house's felines, while Lurdes, like the canine residents, preferred the fluid and lively garden space. As a result of this discovery, we designed the house with an open and dynamic ground floor for the canine occupants, offering numerous possibilities and different configurations. For the felines, access to a series of interconnected and isolated rooftops was designed, creating serene contemplative spaces with varying degrees of isolation or connection.
Finally, the distribution of the house was planned taking into account the movements of the Roomba, a technological entity that also inhabits the house and plays a crucial role in constantly keeping the hair and dust clean.
Thus, the design of this house not only incorporates measures to promote ecological sustainability, such as a separate sewer system with rainwater and graywater reuse, the implementation of passive strategies for climate control, and the use of renewable energy, but also aims to integrate its human and other-than-human inhabitants into the space, understanding architectural space (the house, the neighborhood, the city) as places for cohabitation and the voluntary association of beings.
