The beauty of compactness. Casa MG by bxd arquitectura

Description of project by bxd arquitectura

The plot with 300 m², allowed the construction of 125 m² inscribed in a volume above ground of 14 meters long, 5.5 meters wide and 6 meters high once the distances to established boundaries.

We decided to place in this volume the main program of the house with the day area on the ground floor and the night area on the first floor. Under this volume is the basement with parking and pedestrian access to the house.

Taking into account that we did not know the final user of the house or their needs, we decided to place the staircase in the position that would allow the greatest possibilities of distribution. And we focus on solving a volume with a ladder, placed on a concrete base.

This approach suggested that the construction could be by means of two formulas, the basement must necessarily be "in site", but the main volume could be totally "off site".

In this way, for the envelope of the main volume, we decided to work with a double skin formed by a box, closed, inside another box, permeable, of larger dimensions than the first one.

The first box, a closed enclosure, built with prefabricated panels of wood against lamination, gives us the structural function, and at the same time enclosing with optimal energy qualities, thermal comfort, acoustic characteristic of the material. Also for its qualities we decided to leave the wood seen inside the house.

Description of project by Jean Craiu

The house is located in a residential neighborhood of Sant Cugat de Valles, a town that is located 5 km from Barcelona, ​​(from the district of Les Planes), between the Collserola mountain range and the De Galliners mountain range. The city of Sant Cugat has developed a lot in the last twenty years "taking advantage" of the real estate and tourist pressure of Barcelona and now it is already known as an innovative city at the business and educational level. Many people have preferred to live in quieter areas, "away" from the noise of the city looking for a cheaper way of life.

The MG House is related to this type of need but also to the way of thinking about the house for a "nonexistent" client taking into account that the order comes from a real estate company, where the construction prices are very limited.

At the design level, the project is defined as a construction system that allows the use of the space as much as possible. A concrete plinth, a wooden box and the structure of the metal pipes on the facade establishes the backbone of the house.

The large wooden panels structurally connected, visibly from the interior as a final finish, allows to have a diaphanous plant, where the kitchen, the dining room and the living area are unified composing a continuous space without another type of additional structural system.

On the first floor the double room follows the same principles, but the separation between the 2 rooms is done by a "buffer" space of bathrooms and dressing room.

For the relationship with the exterior the 2 floors are connected through the terraces and on the ground floor it extends towards the pool.

The integration of solar protection "filters" on the south façade "works" more as a "fabric" of light and shadow, which creates an indefinite space between the interior and the exterior. Depending on the projection of the sun and the use from the terrace the "membrane" of the facade "moves" from the glazed area towards the front of the tubes.

At an urban level, the house has its importance as a corner building that can generate a reference for the city.