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Architects: Navello Klotzman arquitectas
- Area: 255 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Gustavo Frittegotto
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Lead Architects: Sofía Navello, Ana Lina Klotzman
Text description provided by the architects. Casa MJ156 sits on a corner lot within a private suburban estate. This given condition, a typified territory, of a different urbanity in traditional terms, is always a challenge, an opportunity for reflection through a specific project.
Due to the regulatory withdrawals of the area, the lot has a very elongated proportion in a north-south direction. When looking from the south end towards the street, one is struck by a sensation of distance, of remoteness, despite the built environment. This long view is the primary observation that determines a fundamental decision regarding the project: to maintain that dimension of the landscape.
The building mass stretches, then, on the long side, and in turn forms the limit between the street and the patio itself, controlling the west orientation.
The formal expression of the house arises from a process of undermining a larger imaginary volume and the addition of other smaller volumes, with the intention of balancing the image of an extended house. The use of a single material on all exterior surfaces (walls, floors, ceilings), brick, reinforces this idea of geometrically perforated stone. The brick provides unity, color, texture, homogeneity from a distance, and good aging over time. The solidity of the final image supports the relationship with the west orientation and the control of privacy with respect to the environment. While having a more frank relationship with the landscape to the east and north, working with each interior-exterior transition point as a theme in itself.
Approaching the corner, the house becomes lighter, and dematerializes, contrary to the construction logic. The corner is defined as a void that highlights this moment of the project, with minimal resources.
This is a house to be observed while walking. It accompanies the pedestrian route both from the street and from within the lot. The lot has not lost a single meter of its initial length, of the possibility of seeing far, of keeping one's distance, of controlling the relationship with the neighbors, of enjoying the green as much as possible, the main reason for choosing to live in this location.
There is a linear reading that persists, but, once inside, in the development of daily movements, an oblique gaze appears, allowing up to three simultaneous visuals, three landscape scales, three orientations, and three types of light. At the end of each interior linear route, there is a green visual finish. Being inside the house is also experiencing the outside space, the desired green space, controlled by the architecture, varying from the extended gaze to the gaze of detail, to the particular situation, delimited by each design decision: a window, a brick ceiling that enters the interior, a timely change of scale.
The expression of volumes that alternate with a logic derived from the programmatic, but also from the symbolic, bring free-standing constructions, strong individualities, and some urbanity to this environment. A minimal urbanity, of a town perhaps. The main entrance through a semi-public courtyard as a "front garden", the service entrance designed as a "porch" space, and a gallery in the courtyard with proportions and treatment of a large "eave", speak of that spirit. Within this discursive line, the corner is the vacant lot, but in terms of urban value, an available space.
The house is simple, friendly, and measured in its requirements and dimensions, like the way its owners live in it. It is a minimal gesture, which is there to try to highlight something much larger: the landscape that contains it, characterized by distance and the omnipresent line of the horizon.
