Thanks to the new project by the Yemail Arquitectura studio, a family will be able to enjoy from their new house-cabin the splendid views of the Cota Valley, a municipality in the Bogotá savanna, at an altitude of 2,566 meters above sea level, in Colombia . The work of the architects has been to renovate a house built in 2007, in which it has been decided to do without the unnecessary.

The new building is conceived as an appreciation of primitive life that is in the promise of inhabiting a cabin, located in front of a body of forest that protects it from the winds that come down from the east. The building faces west, allowing distant views of the landscape.
The new Casa Xecua renovation project by the Yemail Arquitectura studio is a single-story home supported by piles to correct the undulation formed by the land. The house is defined from a molded bar, which defines the interior comfort, with the bedrooms placed at the ends. The living room, kitchen and dining room are placed in the middle of the building like a box on an exterior desk that floats at the most sloped point.

The roof of the volume that constructs the building is gabled with eaves at the ends, which is redefined by the anomaly of a double-height brick cylinder, which serves as access to the home. The cabin is a kind of reverence towards the natural world and, from there, towards the materials of the built world of wood.


Xecua House by Yemail Arquitectura. Photograph by Mateo Perez.


Xecua House by Yemail Arquitectura. Photograph by Mateo Perez.
 

Project description by Yemail Arquitectura

A cabin stands on the edge of a hill overlooking the Cota Valley, a municipality in the Bogotá savannah, at an altitude of 2,566 meters above sea level. The house finds its origin in the story of another built in 2007 in Sisga, which served as the founding project of our office: a butterfly-cut cabin built with the edges discarded by sawyers when cutting down a pine forest. The vocation to do without the unnecessary is the common thread that connects the questions of then with those of now, and as a whole with that appreciation of primitive life that is in the promise of inhabiting a cabin.

The house is located in front of a body of forest that protects it from the winds that come down from the east and extends in an orthogonal volume oriented towards the west and the distant views. The undulation of the terrain dictates that the greatest care is to be raised on stilts.


Xecua House by Yemail Arquitectura. Photograph by Mateo Perez.

The spaces are concentrated in a molded bar with actions that define the interior comfort and the relationship with the most immediate floor. At the ends, the bedrooms end in boxes that contain the closets, providing privacy and depth to the modulated wooden windows, which owe a lot to Japanese architecture.

In the middle, the living room, dining room and kitchen meet, extending like a box on an exterior deck that floats at the most sloped point and offers a visual conversation between the interior and the changing weather of the landscape. Between the living room and the master bedroom a small ritual is celebrated with the passage through a corridor that cuts the volume, refined with the presence of the canopy of Chinese acacia trees framed by the east and a desk contained between the resulting patio. The gabled volume with eaves at the ends is redefined by the anomaly of a double-height cylinder in exposed brick that gravitates with another weight and gives root to the lightness of the wooden box. It also articulates the entrance with the transition through the lobby, hiding a warehouse against the ground.


Xecua House by Yemail Arquitectura. Photograph by Mateo Perez.

The cabin is a kind of reverence towards the natural world and, from there, towards the materials of the built world. The annealed clay on the roof tiles reflects the copper hues in the sunset, while the interior Tecumani pine trusses are displayed between white walls that know how to reflect their shadow.

«this particular handling of materials, not in the artisanal sense, but in its intellectual appreciation, has always been present in the modern movement, and has undoubtedly been something known, what is new is that it finds its closest affinities not "in an architectural style from the past, but in traditional peasant housing forms, but which are never fashionable: a poetics without rhetoric."

The Smithsons.

The spirit of the materials is manifested thanks to the hands of Master Arbey, who knows like no one else the material from which this mountain is made.

More information

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Architects
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Yemail Arquitectura.
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Project team
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Antonio Yemail, Daniel Molina.
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Builder
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Construcción Arbey Pulido.
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Area
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104 sqm.
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Location
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Guasca, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
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Photography
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Mateo Perez.
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Yemail Arquitectura, founded in Bogotá in 2007, develops its professional activity in the design and execution of public and private architectural projects in various parts of Colombia and abroad.

We have worked with cultural institutions, galleries, and museums in the design of pavilions, exhibition halls, museographies, and shops, as well as in collaboration with artists for the development of installations and special projects and with creative agencies, micro and large companies in the design of workspaces, production and sales centers. We also work with developers and individuals in housing development exploring cooperative management models, the rehabilitation of modern heritage, and the use of low-cost manufacturing systems. We have participated in consultancies with foundations, universities, and development agencies for the development of public space interventions, street furniture design, and public policy planning.
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Published on: May 5, 2024
Cite: "A contemporary cabin. Xecua House by Yemail Arquitectura" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-contemporary-cabin-xecua-house-yemail-arquitectura> ISSN 1139-6415
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