Located in an old wooded mill bed where an urban development is currently beginning to develop and based on the initial conditions found, the Jerez arquitectos team designed Casa Patio. A single-family home located in the north of the Spanish province of Burgos, which experiments with the possibilities of inhabiting a flexible domestic space that is adaptable to new future needs.

The characteristics of the plot, flat and approximately rectangular, allow the project to be developed on a single floor, with the interior patio emerging as a clear protagonist, showing itself as a phenomenological element that transforms the home depending on what is happening and the weather conditions at any given time.

The house designed by Jerez arquitectos is arranged around the central courtyard, which faces and creates visual connections between the spaces of the house, thus becoming a source of transparency, reflections, colours and nuances thanks to the glass that surrounds it. The house opens towards the south side, where the social area is located, while on the east and west sides are the service areas of the house such as the kitchen or the storage area of ​​the bedrooms.

The structure of prefabricated concrete walls and steel pillars allows for quick and easy construction, while articulating the spaces in 5x5 metre modules that shape the spaces of the house. Around the perimeter, the house alternates a game of full and empty spaces where the glazing turns the house into a universe that looks both at itself and around it.

Casa Patio por Jerez arquitectos. Fotografía por Iñaki Bergera.

Patio House by Jerez arquitectos. Photograph by Iñaki Bergera.

Project description by Jerez arquitectos

This house is the pioneer of a housing development located on the outskirts of Burgos, between the Logroño road (to the north) and an old wooded mill bed (to the south). The plot is flat and approximately rectangular. Initially, its inhabitants were unknown. We understood these abstract and universal starting conditions as an opportunity to investigate principles that interest us: the construction of a place for open and flexible domestic living, with the capacity to adapt over time to changing needs, materialized in a simple and fast construction, and where the structure orders and articulates the place.

The house is developed on one floor, which emphasizes its horizontality and integrates it with the wooded mass of the mill bed, which acts as a natural background from the road and the house itself. On the floor plan, the house is formed by two squares: the largest, 15x15 meters, is divided into nine parts of 5x5m; the smallest, 6.5m on each side and located to the northeast, houses the garage and the facilities.

Casa Patio por Jerez arquitectos. Fotografía por Iñaki Bergera.
Patio House by Jerez arquitectos. Photograph by Iñaki Bergera.

The heart of the project is a 5x5 metre courtyard that empties the main room in its centre and visually links the whole house, making it a place rich in transparencies, reflections, colours and nuances thanks to the glass that surrounds the courtyard. It also functions as an impluvium that collects the rain from the zinc roof in two gargoyles to transfer it to the trees, plants and a circular fountain. The courtyard is also a phenomenological element that transforms the house depending on what is happening and the climatic conditions at any given moment (temperature, humidity, sun, shade, wind, rain, snow…). But, in addition, it is a place that is simultaneously exterior and interior that can be incorporated into the rest of the house by opening the sliding aluminium frames located on its north and south faces. This helps to regulate the climate of the house naturally as needed, refreshing it with the scent of plants or populating it with the murmur of water. To the southwest of the courtyard, there is a kind of engawa that is visually and physically open to the surrounding garden, which turns the house into a universe that looks both at itself and around it.

The structure is built with five prefabricated concrete walls and six light circular steel pillars. The four pillars that surround the courtyard face the blind perimeter panels of the house, avoiding the vertices of the courtyard. The upright pillars located in the southeast and southwest corners occasionally operate as traction.

Casa Patio por Jerez arquitectos. Fotografía por Iñaki Bergera.
Patio House by Jerez arquitectos. Photograph by Iñaki Bergera.

The house is more open to the south than to the north. The southern walls serve as support for cooking, sleeping and resting, and the southeast and southwest sides (engawa) are more conducive to winter or summer, respectively. The northern walls serve as support for introverted actions (storage, washing, cleaning...), although the space between them can accommodate sleeping, resting, working, reading, playing or exercising, and can be incorporated into the courtyard and the rest of the house by simply opening a few sliding panels. Vertical exterior blinds protect the interior from the sun and views, allowing control of the light, temperature and privacy of this small world.

More information

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Architects
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Jerez arquitectos. Lead architects.- Enrique Jerez, Rebeca Piedra, José M. Méndez.

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Project team
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Agustín de la Torre Gómez.

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Collaborators
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Quantity Surveyor.- José Piedra, Rebeca de la Cal, Javier López.
Structure.- Rubiera.

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Builder
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Residencial Camino de Santiago.

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Developer
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Residencial Camino de Santiago.

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Area
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243 sqm.

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Dates
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Design.- 2020.
Completed.- 2024.

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Location
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Burgos, Spain.

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Budget
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€ 425,000.

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Manufacturers
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Carpentry.- Carpintería Guada.
Furniture and Equipment.- Richana.

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Photography
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Enrique Jerez Abajo (Burgos, Spain, 1980) is an Architect graduated from ETSA Navarra with distinction and Premio Extraordinario de Fin de Carrera (2004). PhD Architect from University of Valladolid (2012). Assistant Professor of Architectural Design at EINA University of Zaragoza (accredited Contratado Doctor, ANECA, 2015). Postgraduate in Restoration of Architecture from ETSA Navarra (2004).

He has worked at Otxotorena Arquitectos, Estudio Cano Lasso, Mangado y Asociados, and BSA. His practice includes domestic and public architecture, interior design, or landscape interventions. In 2020 he was awarded with the Europe 40under40 Award by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, a prize that recognises young European architects. Some of his projects have been winning or awarded in different competitions. His built work has been awarded and exhibited in the Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial (2021, 2018), the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos Vasco-Navarro Awards (2022, 2019, 2013), the Castilla y León Architecture Awards (2024, 2022, 2018, 2011), the Arquia/Próxima Awards for young Spanish architects (2012), or the COACYLE/ Burgos Awards (2023, 2021, 2019, 2016, 2011). Among the publications, AITIM, Arquitectura Viva, Casas Internacional, Cercha, Conarquitectura, Diseño Interior, El País, ON Diseño, TectónicaBlog, or ViA arquitectura.

His PhD thesis is titled THE LEGACY FROM THE EPHEMERAL. 1937-2010, Designed and Built Architecture of Spanish Pavilions at International Exhibitions. His line of research is focused on the strategies that take part in the architectural design’s process, based on modern and contemporary Spanish architecture, and in particular on exhibition pavilions and domestic architecture. Author of the books Paisaje y Artificio. El Mausoleo para Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente en Burgos. Miguel Fisac, Pablo Serrano, and Miradas Compartidas. 3 Citas Domésticas en torno a la Arquitectura. He has been guest editor of ZARCH journal. Author of articles on books and journals (En Blanco, Future Arquitecturas, Ra, ZARCH…), lectures, talks, and papers at national and international congresses. Research award in the XV Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial (2021).

He has been an Associate Professor of Architectural Design at Universidad de Zaragoza (2015-23), and an Adjunct Professor of Architectural Design at Universidad de Valladolid (2012-17). Guest lecturer at ETSA Navarra, ETSA Sevilla, Universidade da Beira Interior (Covilhà, Portugal), IUAV di Venezia (Italy), College of Design Al Ghurair University (Dubai, UAE), BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (Germany), TU Delft (The Netherlands), and Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy).

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