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Architects: Martin Lejarraga Oficina de Arquitectura
- Area: 38 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:David Frutos
Text description provided by the architects. The proposal restores a refugee called “La Casa del Ángel” placed in la Sierra de Jumilla. This small construction has been the shelter of excursionists, hunters and mountaineers during many decades. Due to its relevance on its context, geographical as much as social, the refurbishment could not only be an architectonic action but also a landscape one.
From the gentleness, the project aims to open the hut up to the outside, to the people and to the mountains. Therefore, besides of maintaining the key use of the construction, the program is also developed through shades, nooks and benches to the open space. In this way, “La Casa del Ángel” becomes a landscape piece that can be use from both, the inside and outside.
In the interior, the strength of a unique space organization is enhanced by the improvement of its thermal and acoustic isolation characteristics, transforming the shelter into a suitable place to rest and relax. In addition, the wood used for the structure, windows and doors accompany the unique original masonry giving to the whole space a warm atmosphere. In the outdoor, the project changes the weak original roof into a concrete one, providing of the proper isolation to the inside space and shade to its open-air projection.
The walls are covered by different reddish brickworks that contrast with the intense green of the surroundings, what make the hut stands out in the landscape. None of the materials are coated, taking advantage of its bareness for giving refuge also to other kind of inhabitants: plants, insects, birds, etc. Because of all this, the refurbishing of “La Casa del Ángel” turns out to be a sustainable and recognizable intervention and, on top of this, a proposal with the goal of being the shelter of people, animal and plants within the wonderful landscape it is inserted.
