Hemeroscopium House / Ensamble Studio

Sep 2011

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Houses ,Selected ,Structures , Concrete, Ensamble Studio, Spain, Steel

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Architects: Ensamble Studio
Location: Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain
Principal in Charge: Antón García- Abril
Collaborators: Elena Pérez, Débora Mesa, Jorge Consuegra, Marina Otero, Ricardo Sanz
Technical Architect: Javier Cuesta
Promotor: Hemeroscopium
Contractor: Materia Inorgánica
Project year: 2005-2008
Constructed Area: 400 sqm
Photographs: Ensamble Studio

sketch

For the Greek, Hemeroscopium is the place where the sun sets. An allusion to a place that exists only in our mind, in our senses, that is ever-changing and mutable, but is nonetheless real. It is delimited by the references of the horizon, by the physical limits, defined by light, and it happens in time. Hemeroscopium house traps, a domestic space, and a distant horizon. And it does so playing a game with structures placed in an apparently unstable balance, that enclose the living spaces allowing the vision to escape. With heavy structures and big actions, disposed in a way to provoke gravity to move the space. And this way it defines the place.

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east elevation

The order in which these structures are piled up generates a helix that sets out from a stable support, the mother beam, and develops upwards in a sequence of elements that become lighter as the structure grows, closing on a point that culminates the system of equilibrium. Seven elements in total. The design of their joints respond to their constructive nature, to their forces; and their stresses express the structural condition they have. By the way this structure is set, the house becomes aerial, light, transparent, and the space kept inside flows with life. The apparent simplicity of the structure’s joints requires in fact the development of complex calculations, due to the reinforcement, and the prestress and post-tension of the steel rods that sew the web of the beams.

It took us a year to engineer but only seven days to build the structure, thanks to a total prefabrication of the different elements and a perfectly coordinated rhythm of assembly. All of our effort oriented to develop the technique that would allow to create a very specific space. And thus, a new astonishing language is invented, where form disappears giving way to the naked space. Hemeroscopium house materializes the peak of its equilibrium with what in Ensamble Studio we ironically call the “G point”, a twenty ton granite stone, expression of the force of gravity and a physical counterweight to the whole structure.

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$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 ground floor plan$: ground floor plan

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 second floor plan$: second floor plan

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 east elevation$: east elevation

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 north elevation$: north elevation

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 south elevation$: south elevation

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 west elevation$: west elevation

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 section 01$: section 01

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 section 02$: section 02

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 axo$: axo

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 structure diagram$: structure diagram

: facade details 01

: facade details 02

: facade details 03

: facade details 04

: facade details 05

: facade details 06

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 carpentry details 01$: carpentry details 01

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 carpentry details 02$: carpentry details 02

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 carpentry details 03$: carpentry details 03

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 carpentry details 04$: carpentry details 04

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 1bn beam details$: 1bn beam details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 2bn beam details$: 2bn beam details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 3bn beam details$: 3bn beam details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 artesa beam details$: artesa beam details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 crowning stone details$: crowning stone details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 E pillar details$: E pillar details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 reversed artesa beam details$: reversed artesa beam details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 vierendel truss details$: vierendel truss details

$\Servraid5ensambleAA PUBLICACIONES+ENVIADOrevistas libros2 warren truss details$: warren truss details

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "Hemeroscopium House / Ensamble Studio" 21 Sep 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 07 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/16598>

Comments (40)
Tweets (14)
Links to this entry (12)

sgurin says:

Прикольно, забавная идея. Мне понравилось.
Fun, fun idea. I like.

# March 12, 2009 at 01:34

Vladimir Konovalov says:

it’s like a huge LEGO. interesting principal, but I don’t like the result at all, strangeful place for living…

# March 12, 2009 at 04:13

low says:

and sò?? what the reason for?

# March 12, 2009 at 04:19

_m says:

I love easiness of video presentation! :)

Architecture is marvellous,
sensational internal-external spaces connection.

final photos are stunning!

# March 12, 2009 at 04:39

Nomads Architects says:

Nice project ! Interesting technical details, but a lot of thermal bridges…

# March 12, 2009 at 06:20

Sander says:

this is soooo nice… I love it!

# March 12, 2009 at 09:17

odris says:

Very creative, love it!

# March 12, 2009 at 09:44

Zifeng says:

what is that cantilevered part? is it a swimming pool?

# March 12, 2009 at 09:57

00-Arch says:

Wow!…Too bad you can´t do that in seismic regions. Or am I wrong?

# March 12, 2009 at 10:02

Randy says:

God knows, you better not!

# September 22, 2011 at 11:20

ranuhasu says:

Very interesting – achieving a well-balanced art composition that`s also habitable… very nice – still, how about the thermal bridges?… resolved by the warm Madrid climate?

# March 12, 2009 at 10:15

Thermal bridges are not always a question of losing calories. You can have a local condensation of the vapor. Insulation is working for both ways : hot countries and cold countries.

# March 12, 2009 at 10:36

radirfej says:

it has to be joke. a bad one.
maybe it’s an interesting idea to sail till the border, but in this case it resulted in a merely gag, I think.

# March 12, 2009 at 15:52

Martin says:

“..we ironically call the “G point”, a twenty ton granite stone, expression of the force of gravity and a physical counterweight…”
They just invented a new problem, not a new solution. If not, why on earth would you need a stone like that in the top of the house?
They talk about new languages, but for me, they just took the metaphor and irony too far.
Even Ventury would say that they took the idea too literally.

# March 12, 2009 at 17:53

Bernie Madoff says:

Hey Martin, you write as if there were any truth to be found in aesthetic proposals. That up there is architecture. It’s the product of contingency, subjectivity and culture. And I don’t need to like it in order to acknowledge that is pretty fu..ing awesome project.

# March 12, 2009 at 19:54

ornament and crime says:

This is architecture of bold structural purity.

It is beautiful.

# March 12, 2009 at 23:51

mil says:

Pure architecture…………Is not in the shape………… is something more than a pretty construction.
there is a mistery in between matter and void.

# March 13, 2009 at 00:44

Ariel says:

Wow, great details, great idea.
As a student I have really enjoyed looking through the draftings.
Thank you

# March 13, 2009 at 05:58

NIM says:

Very interesting idea!
I have dreamed about living with express way structure.

It would be the best if those massive concrete beams are something left from the express way or bridge construction projects.
Or the beams are the standard shapes from factory that regularly prepare such concrete beams for infrastructural projects.

Anybody know about this in detail?

# March 13, 2009 at 08:48

chicago.g says:

one of the best throughout!!!

# March 13, 2009 at 18:57

Robert says:

Congratulations. Brilliant.

# April 5, 2009 at 02:44

chuck says:

i’m intrigued by its very nature but dissappointed in its excesses … ain’t it time to produce impressive works reflecting the real ecological issues of working in concrete … brute force is hollywood … architecture needs to resonate in a more meaningful way … still like it.

# April 18, 2009 at 17:21

Rem says:

потрясающе. великолепно. решение сырое, метами непроработанное совсем, но язык великолепен

Is more tremendous. Perfectly well. The decision crude, метами not worked absolutely, but language is magnificent

# April 24, 2009 at 18:39

Guido says:

Genious! with a passion for civil engineering, this is like playing piano with Mozart, thank you guys!!

# May 4, 2009 at 11:12

Bo Lucky says:

Genius???? It’s just a different kind of Lego structure… any 5 year old could do it… or even be better!!! Is a question of having big enough cranes…

# May 4, 2009 at 11:22

guido says:

After that stone, the structure is balanced. You could take out the extreme pillar, and it won’t fall down.

# May 5, 2009 at 23:15

2MACoff says:

ААА ДА ДА ДА ЭТО де БЕСТ ваще я в шоке!!! ОЧЕНЬ ОЧЕНЬ ОЧЕНЬ .!.

# May 28, 2009 at 14:31

elisabeth says:

WOW!! That’s a brilliant idea!!

# November 13, 2009 at 00:39

Michael Baugus says:

A cantilever lap pool? Hemeroscopium House / Ensamble Studio. http://bit.ly/aL4KVD

# February 10, 2010 at 22:55

Arquitetura da Vila says:

Ótimo projeto que associa a construção [de forma invoadora] com a integração dos espaços. Vale a pena ver o vídeo. http://bit.ly/95zs1d

# February 18, 2010 at 09:18

Jaro Kukucka says:

House of the Century. Brutal Concrete! http://ow.ly/1rodB @archdaily #concrete #architecture

# March 26, 2010 at 15:58

Dani says:

Antón García-Abril hires his “employees” this way: you have to work FOR FREE in his studio for 6 MONTHS, and afterwards he will decide if you continue or not (and of course, in which conditions). And he talks about ethics…

# June 6, 2010 at 13:23

KALIKA says:

Nah, this guy has better works.This is just a tribute to Fernando Higueras of whom Mr.Garcia Abril is very fond of, nice try but not even nearby.Ask ‘em about SGAE.

# September 21, 2011 at 16:20

joseph n. biondo says:

Very interesting hybrid structure. Robust, bold, muscular -have not seen that level of rigor with precast since Gordon Bunshaft. Great work!

# September 21, 2011 at 21:54

“Hmmm, let`s see…hey, tell you what, let`s add 20 tons on top of it!” “Yeah, I`m sure THAT won`t cause any problems in years to come!”

# September 22, 2011 at 00:01

Nicholas Dunning says:

Is Hemeroscopium a real world or has it been invented for this house? If so, what words are there that could be used for a position to view the setting sun?

# September 22, 2011 at 00:02

Um…facing west? (Sorry!) XD

# September 22, 2011 at 00:08

edou777 says:

Nice project, but I don t understand why they put that sh*t at the end. It wastes everything!!

# September 22, 2011 at 05:39

Doug C. says:

Well, you can’t accuse it of being under-engineered. Is the point to use enough resources to build fifty homes? You could probably build one hundred Jean Prouve houses with the same weight of materials.

# September 22, 2011 at 10:07