The new house proposed by Balsa Crosetto Piazzi is located on a plot with dimensions of 12.00 x 21.50 m. Taking as a reference the galleries of the “chorizo house” typology of the Argentine pampas, the house seeks the best orientation, occupying half of the plot, and generating a patio of the same dimensions as the house. This type of house maximizes lighting and ventilation, achieved through a system of mobile carpentry, which allows for complete integration between the interior and the exterior.
Inside, the social space is housed under a steeply inclined roof. The volume formed by the inclined roof does not aim to increase the total surface area, but rather to connect the dining room with a small studio located on the second floor, which facilitates a closer relationship between the domestic and the work.
The project uses two construction systems to cover the house: The social space uses a system of parallel beams that spans a span of 17 meters without pillars that support a light roof made of rectangular tubes and that allows the future construction of a second floor, and in the bedrooms, a solid concrete slab is used.
House MF by Balsa Crosetto Piazzi. Photograph by Marcos Guiponi
Project description by Balsa Crosetto Piazzi
This small house, designed for a family of young professionals and their newborn child, is located on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba, where the boundaries between countryside and city tend to blur.
The project, which is part of a larger constellation of operations in similar territories that the office has been working on in recent years, emerges as an opportunity to explore typological possibilities for domestic life in the suburbs.
Located on a 258 m² plot (12.00 x 21.50 m), the house, blind to the front, occupies half of the plot while opening to its best orientation, responding to lessons learned from the galleries of the "casa chorizo" typology of the Argentine pampas. This not only maximizes lighting and ventilation but also creates a patio of the same dimensions as the house, which, through a system of movable carpentry, allows for complete integration between the interior and exterior.
Inside, beneath a steeply inclined roof, the social space is housed, resolved through a section that prioritizes volume over surface area and vertically connects the living-dining room with a small study on the second floor.
Finally, due to a limited budget from a mortgage loan, the tectonics of the project are resolved through a system of two parallel beams, 17 meters long, functioning as gargoyles and eaves. Without intermediate columns, they support a lightweight roof made of rectangular tubes (160 x 60 mm) in the social space and a solid concrete slab over the bedrooms, which will allow for an additional floor in a future second phase.
