CASAS DE PIEDRA
The house discreetly dominates its location, resting on the hillside next to some lovely preexisting oak trees and looking out over the landscape and city of Cáceres. Yet even from this dominating position, the house is respectful towards its natural-artificial surroundings, and establishes formal and constructive bonds with its immediate setting and the historic center of Cáceres.
Within its limited dimensions, the house is like a palace for its users, for it embodies a noble character thanks to the simplicity of its functional scheme and the rigorous traditional construction of the volume.
The exterior of the house is a simple prismatic volume with a square floor plan whose sides are 17.40 meters long, and its walls built with local quartzite stone. Each of the prism’s sides have three square-shaped windows, framed with granite stone from the Extremadura region.
On the inside, nine cubic spaces with 4.20 meter sides accommodate the different uses of the house: living spaces, bedrooms, kitchen and dining room. In between these rooms the servant spaces are located, such as bathrooms and storage space. Each of the nine rooms is built upon two differentiated layers: a lower layer made of oak wooden paneling, behind which the installations and servant spaces are hidden, and an upper layer consisting of a white concrete trough, with no integrated mechanism or lighting system.
All of the rooms open up to the exterior landscape through large square-shaped windows, with of oak frames. The openings in the lower wooden panels are sliding windows with 2.10 meter sides, whereas the upper windows in the concrete structure measure 1.50x1.50m and are motorized.
The open platform in the rear part of the house is surrounded by oak and olive trees, and has a small swimming pool that invites users to enjoy life outdoors. The rest of the house’s program (parking, installations, storage room, etc.) is located on a lower level below the house and has its own private entry from the street.
