JG House / Speziale Linares Arquitectos

Courtesy of Speziale Linares Arquitectos

Curated by ArchDaily

Architects: Speziale Linares Arquitectos
Year: 2011

Text description provided by the architects. The house is located in the north of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a suburban gated community. In the back of the lot, there is a navigable river communicating with the delta of De la Plata River. Uruguay can be reached from here. This is a remarkable feature of the site, as the water gives us the opportunity not only to practice water sports daily, but also to enjoy a unique view and landscape.

The clients are a couple who were looking for a house in direct contact with nature (the man likes boating and fishing, and the woman likes gardening) where they could spend time with their children and grandchildren, carrying out outdoor activities in contact with the water. The house is used semi-permanently by the couple and is designed to welcome the rest of the family (children / grandchildren).

The lot is a rectangle 20 meters wide and 45 meters deep. Taking advantage of the length of the site and in order to be closer to the river, the main volume of the house was moved to the back. This allowed us to generate an entrance courtyard as a transition between the street (noise) and the house (silence). This courtyard has a pond, a waterfall and a bridge that define the entrance, along with the garage and a wall used as a bench to enjoy the sunsets. On the other side of the house, the great social space is linked to a gallery through a frame that can be completely opened, blurring the lines between interior and exterior space, strengthening the relationship with the garden and river views.

The program is divided into two levels and is composed as follows: on the ground floor, the main protagonist is the large and integrated social space (living room, kitchen and utility room) containing its services. On this level is the master bedroom as well, to facilitate accessibility for the owners and reduce the surface used when only the couple is present. On the first floor are two guest bedrooms with bathroom, to accommodate their children and a multipurpose space that functions as a playroom and bedroom for the grandchildren, in order to stimulate the links and memories between cousins at their grandparents' house. This semi-private space is adjacent to the double height living room, and has a terrace from where much of the landscape can be viewed.

Morphologically, the house is composed of two elements: on the ground floor, a gray "ribbon" winds up, down, folds, bends or turns ... to configure each interior space and define the different ways in which they relate with the outside. On it, the other element, the "black box", generates the access, views, allows the entry of overhead light and creates, through the double height, the spatial fluidity between the living room and the multipurpose space. The black box stretches up, down, breaks ... it is mounted on the ribbon.

The search for the project had to do with the great natural potential of the place and work on the idea of contrasts in the perception of the observer. The house is dark and solid on the outside, and light and bright inside. This was achieved with the overhead light provided by skylights and exploiting the use of different colors such as black and white. We highlight the skylight in the main bedroom, that along with the window, achieve an extended view of the sky and landscape. In addition, the skylight in the double height area has an east-west direction and provides natural light from sunrise to sunset. This, in addition to generating energy savings, provides a temporal view of the space, where the sun deploys its different shades and light colors every hour.