It's nice to see how the architecture is adapted to an environment creating a connection between nature and architecture, this is the main concept of this proposal designed by FRPO.

MO house maintains an ongoing dialogue with nature doing more pleasant and healthy the lives of their users. The context alters the simplicity of the program generating an integrated spatial organization in the woods.

Memory of project

Systematic freedom

In 2010 we received a commission to design a single-family house in a forest in the outskirts of Madrid. Although the programmatic requirements were conventional, the site would demand a complex geometry. The powerful presence of the trees and the wish to have a house integrated in the woods led to a disaggregated solution. The program was transferred in a very direct and natural way to a number of simple rectangular pieces. The different topological relations between the pieces determined a series of useful solutions, 24 in the end. The optimal version was selected and the plan of the MO House was this way defined.

The MO House project belongs to a family of projects developed in the office beginning in 2005. These projects explore the possibilities of generating architectural complexity out of the combination of simple elements. Throughout this process of projects, conditioned by a large number of specifications settled by the clients, we have been forced to systematize every design decision in order to simplify the process to its full capacity. The results produce a nice surprise: the combination of a number of extremely simple spaces offer an extremely rich spatial experience. We have found a powerful tool to work with. We can use this system in very different situations. Some very simple basic rules and a series of pieces with adequate proportions will result in an endless range of solutions.

Wood in the woods.

The final arrangement of the MO House plan opened two technical issues that put the solution into question: the high variety of angles in the joints between pieces and a penalized shape factor that would result in a negative impact on the energetic performance of the house (an elevated façade-volume ratio). In addition to that, another key issue aroused: proximity of trees required a little aggressive foundation system.

The technical solution adopted in a first approach –steel skeleton with concrete slabs- did not seem viable. We needed a lighter system that could be assembled in a more accurate way. It had to be simple –like the plan- and thermally favourable. On a visit to his studio, a friend showed us a cross-laminated wood panel by KLH. The product met all the requirements: a solid structural material with high insulating performance and CNC manufactured at their Austrian factory. The house would be solid wood. Wood in the woods. 72 mm thick walls. Slabs from 95 to 182 mm. The total weight of the structure would not reach one third of a conventional system. The foundations could therefore be made of galvanized steel micropiles only 2 meters long. The panels would be manufactured by numerical control cutting, ensuring accuracy at all angles. The structure would be insulating, continuous, lightweight, precise and extremely thin. The floor of the house could be a direct transposition of the work scheme. The installation process would be fast and accurate.

The nature of the project remained intact and its technical requirements had led us to the discovery of a new field of project possibilities.

Text.- FRPO Rodriguez & Oriol ARCHITECTURE LANDSCAPE.

Read more
Read less

More information

Label
Architects
Text
FRPO Rodriguez & Oriol.
Architects.- Pablo Oriol, Fernando Rodríguez.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Project team
Text
Pastora Cotero, Inés Olavarrieta, Cornelius Schmitz, Cristina Escuder; KLH, Alter Materia, Miguel Nevado (consultants).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Contractors
Text
Alter Materia, Grupo Singular.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Area
Text
295 m² (total floor area).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text
September 2012 (completion), 2010 (project).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Location
Text
Madrid. Spain.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Furniture
Text
Paredes & Pino, Schneider & Colao Studio Gallery, Volumen Mobiliario.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Photography
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
FRPO (2008) is an architecture office based in Madrid directed by Fernando Rodriguez and Pablo Oriol, internationally recognized with the Architectural Record Design Vanguard (New York, 2012), Europe 40 under 40 (2009) and Bauwelt Preis (Berlin, 2007) awards, among others. Their work has also received prestigious awards, such as the selection for the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Awards (2019), the FAD Awards (2019), the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2016, Golden Lion), the nomination for the Mies van der Rohe Awards (2015), the IX and XII Spanish Biennials of Architecture and Urbanism (2007 and 2013), or the V and IX Ibero-American Biennials of Architecture and Urbanism (2006 and 2014).

FRPO’s work has been widely published, and its proposals have been disseminated through articles, lectures, and frequent exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.

Trained as architects at the ETSAM in Madrid, at the IIT in Chicago and the TU Berlin, Pablo Oriol and Fernando Rodriguez are professors in the Department of Architectural Design at the ETSAM UPM, as well as regular guests at various national and foreign universities.

Fernando Rodríguez holds a PhD in Architecture since 2015. He studied architecture at UPM ETSAM in Madrid and at the Technische Universität Berlin, between 1995 and 2003. He has collaborated in MVRDV and has been Invited Critic with Kees Christiaanse at the TU Berlin. He worked as a project architect for Abalos & Herreros in 2004. He is a lecturer at the Architectural Design Department of UPM ETSAM and at the IE University.

Pablo Oriol studied architecture at UPM ETSAM and the IIT College of Architecture in Chicago, between 1995 and 2005. He was Cultural Activities Curator for the General Department of Architecture of the Ministry of Public Works for the ETSAM and the Cervantes Institute between 1999 and 2002. He was part of the redaction team of the magazine Arquitectura Viva in 2006. He is PhD candidate and lecturer at the Architectural Design Department of UPM ETSAM and at the IE University.

In 2005 Fernando Rodriguez and Pablo Oriol were founding partners of Nolaster Oficina de Arquitectura, where they developed their professional activity until 2007. In 2008 they established FRPO as a natural evolution of their previous professional experiences.
Read more

Pablo Oriol (Madrid 1977) Architect / Partner. He studied architecture at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the Architecture College of the Illinois Institute of Technology of Chicago, between 1995 and 2005. He was Cultural Activities Curator for the General Department of Architecture of the Ministry of Public Works for the ETSAM and for the Cervantes Institute between 1999 and 2002. He is a PhD candidate at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM. He is Associate Professor at the Architectural Design Department of the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the IE School of Architecture.

In 2005 they become founder-associates with  of Fernando Rodríguez Nolaster Oficina de Arquitectura, where they have developed their professional activity until 2007. In 2007 Pablo Oriol and Fernando Rodríguez establish FRPO, as a natural evolution of the work done until the date within Nolaster.

Read more

Fernando Rodríguez (Albacete 1977) Architect / Partner. He studied architecture at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the Technische Universität Berlin, between 1995 and 2003. In 2002 he has collaborated in MVRDV (Rotterdam) and has been Invited Critic with Kees Christiaanse at the TU Berlin. He has worked as projects architect for Abalos & Herrerros (Madrid) in 2004. He is a PhD candidate at the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM. He is Associate Professor at the Architectural Design Department of the Madrid Polytechnic ETSAM and at the IE School of Architecture.

In 2005 they become founder-associates of Nolaster Oficina de Arquitectura, where they have developed their professional activity until 2007. In 2007 Fernando Rodríguez and Pablo Oriol establish FRPO, as a natural evolution of the work done until the date within Nolaster.

Read more
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...