# House # 1.130 by Estudio Entresitio
24/09/2014.
[MAD] Spain
metalocus, BELEN CALLEJO
metalocus, BELEN CALLEJO
Description of the project by estudio.entresitio
This is a single-family house, but quite a large one, something over 5 hundred square meters, site is narrow and long and sloped towards the south.
Two different schemes superimposed one on top of the other; a longitudinal one, based on spatial forking, and the one underneath, based on hand fingers-like configuration. As a result, it is a fractured mass, ruled by the rhythm of the roof structure.
Some other important things are the growth against the slope, entrance through the umbilicus and permeable skins that thicken space boundaries. The upper level is a daytime pavilion with a metal roof structure that goes all the way through in visual continuity, with long views through a sequence of spaces.
Concrete supporting walls and glass enclosure are the other two vertical elements, blurring the idea of interior and exterior.
Rooms below are burrow-like, with nested openings in between them.
As for the floor plan solution, the structure above combs space in a single direction, transversal to movement while below, penetrations fragment the volume bringing light deep inside the built mass.
It is a formless project in the sense that is impossible to get any volumetric understanding as a spectator, also because of the camouflage of the permeable skin with the concrete, dynamic in perception because of light.
The permeable skin follows the same rhythm in a pattern of vertical lines as the concrete surfaces; is not only about the absence of frames, supporting elements are secondary and intentionally hidden and as thin as possible, also for the moveable parts. It is an inhabitable porous enclosure, made by the superimposition of multiple layers with different densities and permeability and therefore, different degrees of interiority.
For this project we have been not only the architects but also the general contractor; this time, not only the art or process of building was in our hands but the act of physical construction.
estudio.entresitio is a Madrid-NY base practice, founded by María Hurtado de Mendoza Wahrolén and César Jiménez de Tejada Benavides that is invested in the material actualization of the architectural concept. The practice has extensive building experience with an emphasis on public work that utilizes novel solutions to the functional and necessary without sacrificing the creative or exploratory.
An international award-winning firm was selected in 2007 as Design Vanguard by Architectural Record helping its work to be published and seen in many countries. Entresitio’s constructed work has received more than 30 awards and honourable mentions. The firm participated in the 10th and 11th Spanish Biennial, the 7th BIAU (Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism), twice in the Venice Biennale (2000 and 2006), the Barbara Cappochin Biennale 2011 and more, and received the ArchDaily “Building of the Year 2012” in the health care category, for its healthcare centres trilogy of San Blas+Usera+Villaverde, Madrid.
Maria and César worked together since 1993, Jose Maria joined them in 2003 after 4 years of working for Rafael Moneo and Alvar entered the studio in 2007.
Both Maria and César teach architectural design on regular basis, César at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) and Maria in the US, currently at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) after a couple of semesters at Cornell University.