casa mendoza
Within the urban fabric of the City of Buenos Aires, the exception is the rule.
In this case, the meeting of an urban grid with the passage of an elevated railway infrastructure, generates a series of dead-end streets that culminate in green slopes.
The plot in question is located at the intersection of one of these quiet streets with another one busy at all hours.
The work responds by proposing a 3-story house (basement, ground floor and first floor) aisolated from the edges of the plot, forming the limit with the public space through a 2" thick solid wood fence, which with time is being conquered by the vegetation of the place.
The material is repeated on al the faces of the first floor prism in the form of a solid wood lattice, except for the façade that is most exposed to heavy traffic. Here they opted for a Portuguese tile cladding, which, according to the manufacturers, is a remnant of the works of the Lisbon subways.
The existence on the site of a house from the 70's, introduced the re-use approach as a theme.It was decided to discover and respect the well-built structure of reinforced concrete and make it independent. Alarge service sector that limitated with a dividing wall was demolished and those m2 were recovered through the addition of a basement.
The interior-exterior relationship varies according to each of the levels of the house. In the basement, the link is merely contemplative, with a courtyard at half level down from the ground floor level, with mirrored walls and shady vegetation, acting as a natural bellows with the exterior. The destination of this level is study and library, as well as service uses.
On the ground floor, the enclosures are completely glazed and practicable, so that the limits are blurred, giving absolute continuity and having the sensation of being outdoors, while being covered. These decisions reinforce the will to turn this space into a large semi-covered space, where the true visual and physical limits are the wooden planks of the fence or the dividing walls vegetated by native species.
The first floor is the most secluded of al. It was sought to generate a protected environment of visuals and sounds. That is why the rooms have a private patio, common at 3, which is the transition between the bustle of the street and the rest
area. It is an abstraction from the context, an idealization of nature, a contained universe. With colorful species, very changeable according to the seasons, and of great ornamental value.
The facades on this level were treated with a system of wooden latticework, which allows sunlight and air to pass through, but isolates the interior from direct views from the environment. These sieves provide visual, thermal and sound protection. In turn, between the lattices and the windows, vegetation is raised that helps to isolate the house at night, when the lighting makes the house interiors vulnerable.
The contraposition of exposure and protection is the common thread of the entire project.
text by: arq. nicolás tovo and arq. teresa sarmiento.
