Three-storey house which explores the complex relationship between intimacy, domesticity, spatial expansion and transparency

Architects: Barclay & Crousse
Location: Cercado de Lima, Peru
Year: 2013
Area: 9.213 ft²/ 856 m²
Photo courtesy: Gonzalo Cáceres
Description:

“The project explores the complex relationship between intimacy, domesticity, spatial expansion and transparency, inspired on the traditional limean houses, which respond to an introverted scheme where the street façade, opaque and abstract, give place to a lively courtyard in the interior through a single space called zaguán.

In this project, the apparent opacity and heaviness of the house, seen from the street, is transformed in fluid, transparent and lighted spaces once we get in the interior of the house and the interior garden, treated as a green patio. A multiple storey space defines the threshold where intimacy comes to be.

The house is organized in three levels in the vertical sense and in a square angle in the horizontal sense. The vertical organization responds to the program, while the horizontal organization responds to context and orientation.

The service area and ludic spaces are located in the basement, but open to mineral patios connected to the ground floor by ramps. The bedrooms are located in the upper level, framing views over the suburbs. Both levels define a transparent space that defines the social area, opening thoroughly to the green patio.

This social level links the mineral and green patios offering many ways to live the house, depending on the time and the weather conditions. These spaces offer a great flexibility and adaptability so to admit evolution in uses and the pleasure of continuously re-discovering your own home.”