For Casa Nido, Iterare arquitectos proposes a pure volume that emerges from the existing building’s façade and opens up to reveal a regular courtyard at the rear of the plot, hollowing out the volume and forming the project’s grand backdrop.
A large window provides light, ventilation and views throughout the structure. The central staircase connects the two storeys and integrates the service areas around it—a narrow space built of limestone that opens onto an open-plan area featuring a large skylight.
Casa Nido by Iterare arquitectos. Photograph by David Zarzoso.
Project description by Iterare arquitectos
Occupying a corner position in one of Valencia's humblest neighborhoods—Torrefiel—the nest-house project is conceived as an exercise in protecting and highlighting the scarce yet valuable built heritage still preserved in the streets of this important northern district.
Although regulations allowed for the demolition of the existing building and the construction of a new one, the project was determined from the outset to preserve the envelope of the old house and shelter within it. It's as if that skin—of solid brick and lime mortar—which had remained intact over the years, were now becoming the foundation (or perhaps the nest) of a new, emerging architecture that is born and rises above it.
Thus, the building, now reduced to a single, pure, and elemental volume, finds within itself what is perhaps the most important element of the house: its patio. A regular and perfect space, located at the back of the plot, empties the built volume and becomes the grand backdrop of the project. All of this is thanks to the large window (almost 7 meters high) that provides light, ventilation, and views to all the rooms in the house.
From there, a single central staircase connects the two levels and seamlessly integrates the service areas around it. This intentionally narrow and secluded space, built of limestone, leads to the most private area of the house: the open-plan living room on the first floor.
This space serves as both a living area and a study, and features a large skylight that allows a constant, gentle breeze to flow through and captures the movement of the sun across the house's surfaces, like a painting.
