Dúplex MJ
These duplex-type apartments are located in a well-established residential area in the town of Villa Elisa, in La Plata. They are implanted on a lot between party walls with a front of 10m and a depth of 30m, with the particularity of containing two old palm trees.
The project attempts to respond to the scale of the neighbourhood, generating a permeable limit on the municipal line, thus expanding the space. A wall of concrete blocks separates the two apartments from each other by the entrances, allowing light to pass through.
The building is developed over the entire width of the lot. As for the organization of its spaces, the public ones are located on the ground floor and the private ones on the top floor.
The public floor has a garage for two vehicles per apartment. The access to the apartments is framed with a reinforced concrete “belt” detached from the ground and ceiling. By entering, the dining room-kitchen is presented in a direct and transparent relationship to the gallery, taking advantage of the best sunlight. The gallery gives the project an intermediate space with multiple uses. In order to give additional light to the dining room, two glazed slits were designed to articulate and detach the semi-covered volumes of the gallery and entrance. Finally, there is a green courtyard on the ground floor where the huge palm trees are located.
The private floor of each apartments is made up of two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Regarding the exterior spaces, the backyard is characterized as being an intimate expansion of the house, while the space towards the front is for pedestrian and vehicular access.
The project materialized through a traditional construction system, complemented with precast elements (blocks of HºAº, precast phenolic tiles) and recovered materials (pine) highlighting its nobility, optimizing resources, shortening execution times, resulting in low maintenance and achieving an austere and contemporary expression.
