House in Somosaguas II / A-cero

Architects: A-cero / Joaquin Torres
Location: Somosaguas, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain
Collaborator: Rafael Llamazares
Project Year: 2005-2007
Photographs: Courtesy of A-cero

The plot, where this housing is situated, is the result of dividing an original state. It adopts the form of an irregular polygon of four sides, presents a light slope and has a surface of 13.357 sqm.

The plot borders to the North on common spaces of the housing development; on the South with the access route and to the east with the nearby plot. The housing development has a lot of wide gardens between the houses which are arranged around a central pond.

lower floor plan

Following the client needs, the housing develops in three plants, dividing its space in differentiated areas: a buried floor where is the facilities rooms, holiday room, movies room and a gymnasium with dressing room; the first floor, where the access is located, developed in different levels separating different functions: garage, kitchen with several rooms like a larder, a cellar, a cleaning utensils room, office, service area with laundry, drying area and a safety room; furthermore, there is an area for the principal bedroom with its dressing-rooms, baths, gymnasium and swimming pool. In the last floor they are located a lounge and the children bedrooms, all of them with its bathrooms.

Next to the principal housing is located the service house, provided of a lounge and four bedrooms with their bathrooms. This second piece is integrated to the whole volume with the surrounding curved walls, which mark the exterior unit of the project and delimit the open spaces inside.

According to the client desires, the housing presents a closed face towards the exterior, solved with a series of concentric curved walls of natural stone that produce open spaces more intimate and private in its interior area. A scenery created by natural stone elements and water. The spaces are organized in battery along a series of longitudinal stripes that define the different types of use. In the transverse sense, the housing is organized in a gradation made of closed and open volumes, and from social and services spaces to private and intimate areas. Two principal stripes are separated by an open space marked by a water sheet. The transit between both parts is done across a sculptural footbridge of massive granite blocks, which marks in a physical and symbolic way the housing limits.

The exterior walls are made of travertino Roman marble, solved in a system of ventilated front that it allows to put in value the aesthetic qualities of the natural stone, making use at the same time of technical qualities of this constructive system as its climatic efficiency and easy maintenance.

In most of the interior spaces the floors are finished in black granite, while in some points in the first floor the travertino marble is used too in order to give unit to the housing set.