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Architects: Design Group Latinamerica, MAT Latinamerica
- Area: 1100 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Luis Ontiveros
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Lead Architects: Manuel Ball Leonardi, Michele Casarin, Francisco Fernández
Text description provided by the architects. The winner of the “Annual Construction Award” in the category “Development of High-Level Housing Projects 2017” in Maracaibo, Venezuela, the SEI building is a large-scale residential project developed by the architecture agency MAT Latinamerica (http://mat -la.com) together with Design Group Latinamerica (https://www.dg-la.com/)
The project is located on a 410 m² lot, incorporating five apartments of 168 m², a rooftop sundeck and ten parking spaces. The general floor plan of the apartments has a flexible social space, completely open and free of any visual or structural obstacle, able to accommodate different spacial organizations at the will of the inhabitant. This is possible by practically leaving a passing space from facade to facade, guaranteeing natural ventilation and vital visuals and lighting.
The terrace has a sundeck, outdoor showers and a small lounge with a barbecue, taking advantage of the view of Lake Maracaibo from a privileged height. Regarding the construction, the restriction of the parking lots forces us to consider a construction with 11 meters in beams and 7 meters in slabs, in order to house them on the ground floor, generating flexible spaces free of structural elements on the upper floors.
Due to the proportions of the area to be covered, we used double-reinforced solid slabs, which bridged the important distances between supports, allowing us to keep the finished ceilings clean. In order to obtain profitable sections in such a heavy building, we opted to replace the coarse aggregate of the structural concrete with lightweight aggregate in the form of expanded clay (ALIVEN); lightening up to 30% the weight of the building, reducing the size of the foundations, becoming one of the largest lightweight reinforced concrete projects of the last decade in Venezuela.
Two of the apartments were developed under the "key in hand" methodology that characterizes Design Group Latinamerica. This comprehensive service begins with the conceptual design stage until the integration of all the disciplines for the execution and delivery of the fully completed project.
Both apartments are characterized by the aesthetic diversity of their spaces with unexpected contrasts and comforting harmonies that propose a new visual concept for residential life. Design Group Latinamerica combined experience, technology, and contemporary design to materialize refined atmospheres that display an elegant, versatile and original language, resulting in a cozy home of incomparable style.
In both apartments, the kitchen by Valcucine Kitchens stands out for its distinctive modulation that incorporates the traditional island and the dining room in the same space, having a highly aesthetic and comfortable contemporary character, while optimizing the space by successfully integrating two very important environments. Furthermore, it implements a functional strategy that would allow the flexibility of the space, for which sliding doors from the Rimadesio factory were incorporated between the kitchen and the living room to privatize the area according to the activity, resulting in an ideal alternative to configuring areas on open floors.
