Four Urban Patio Houses
Developed on four adjoining 10 x 20 metres plots in San Rafael, Mendoza, the
project explores how a single order can give rise to different ways of dwelling.
Rather than four independent objects, the houses form a continuous structure
in which repetition and variation coexist within a shared logic.
Each plot is organised around three courtyards. A front courtyard extends
domestic life towards the street, accommodating parking, services and outdoor
gathering; an intermediate courtyard forms the private core of the house; and a
roof terrace transforms the upper level into a fifth façade, opening views
towards the Andes and the surrounding urban landscape.
Concrete columns and beams, prefabricated slabs and brick walls constitute a
deliberately reduced construction vocabulary. The repetition of these elements
establishes a common grammar capable of accommodating different spatial
configurations without losing coherence.
In a region shaped by the brick-making industry of inland Argentina, brick
appears as an ordinary material linking construction, landscape and local
culture. The project emerges from an economy of means in which order does
not restrict diversity, but makes it possible.
