Renovating with brick. AM HOUSE by Horma Estudio
27/05/2019.
[Villarreal] Spain
metalocus, BLANCA VÁZQUEZ
metalocus, BLANCA VÁZQUEZ
The project by HORMA studio seeks to enhance the original elements, eliminating those additions that make it difficult to read the initial space. The main façade and the original wooden roof are maintained, while in the interior the different spaces are articulated around a courtyard. Built entirely with a vertical brickwork, the courtyard becomes the main element of the dwelling.
The boundaries between the courtyard and the daytime spaces are intentionally blurred, favouring the fluidity and spatial continuity of the ground floor, which develops over the entire dimension of the plot. In the background, the volume of the granary loses its original intermediate slab to accommodate the living room, whose section allows for the singularity of the main space and captures natural light from its roof.
Description of project by HORMA studio
The illusion of two friends and their two daughters. This is the story of a family that inherits with uncertainty a house between walls in its original state in the city center of Vila-real. Behind the uncertainty, a great opportunity to reinterpret a space attending to the needs of a new generation without forgetting the still existing past. The spatial fluidity and the warmth of the materials guided by natural light show how to inhabit the house. With a facade respected for its antiquity, the interior hides the revolution of the residential typology reinterpreting the usual values.
The original house was composed of two bodies, the house in contact with the main facade and a barn that occupied the bottom of the plot. Between them, other elements other elements have appeared over time and have filled a necessary space to breathe.
This rehabilitation aims to respect the existing architecture by valuing the original elements and eliminating those additions that make difficult to read the initial space. Once its origin has been recovered, the project must connect both bodies to accommodate the requested domestic program and work to give them meaning as a whole.
For this, a patio will become the main element, able to illuminate, articulate spaces and also give the house the necessary character, establishing a dialogue between the past, the present and the future.
The ground floor includes the publicuse of the house, developed throughout the size of the plot, 5 meters wide by 22 meters long. The spatial sequence proposed from the access is understood as a single space that at each moment is having a specific dimension and linked to different function, with no more limits than its own geometry. With the appearance of the patio, it will be the one which shapes and makes sense of the sequence. A patio of contemplation and use where its footprint is more defined by its material than by its limits, intentionally diffuse to link with its adjacent spaces.
On upper floors, the most private spaces for individual use find their place, distributing the rooms on the first floor and the studio on the top floor, under the original wooden roof linked to a terrace that allows to relive the patio that starts from ground level. Facade, far from altering the existing rhythms, intervenes in the depth of the ground floor window, replacing the original one with a terrace inhabited with vegetation that improves the privacy of the house while allowing ventilation of the entire public area.
Materially, the house is designed with neutral tones that emphasize the natural light and the geometry of the original elements, leaving the singularity for the patio, built entirely with a vertical brickwork that runs throughout its surface and inhabited by abundant vegetation giving both together life and color to the whole.
Therefore, brick, vegetation and natural light, primary materials, are responsible for intervening in a place with memory, but now also with a future to discover.
HORMA is an architectural studio founded and directed by Nacho Juan and Clara Cantó. Both, together with Jose Iborra, coordinate the work of the rest of the team and the development of each of the projects.
Their job is to understand architecture as a personal experience that allows each client to turn their project into a unique reality according to their needs. The architecture, learned and developed from the passion and the knowledge, allows us to read each project as a new opportunity to continue growing.
Recently recognized in the selection of emerging architecture of the Valencian Community and in the mention received by the Official College of Architects of the Valencian Community, from the studio we continue working every day to get the best project for each of our clients. Architecture and interior design, merged into a single line of work, allow us to develop our projects from the first line of their idea to the last detail.
NACHO JUAN, Director - Puerto de Sagunto, 1983
2016 | Doctor architect by the Technical School of Architecture of Valencia. Outstanding Cumlaude.
2016 - Deputy Director School of Architecture at the University Ceu Cardenal Herrera
2013 - Director Master's Degree in Interior Design at the University Ceu Cardenal Herrera
2012 - Co-director of the graphic architecture communication studio Drawyourdreams
2009 - Professor at the Ceu Cardenal Herrera University
2008 | Architect with Honorary Degree by the School of Architecture of Valencia
CLARA CANTÓ, Director - Líria, 1983
2015 - Professor of Master in interior design at the University Ceu Cardenal Herrera
2012 - Co-director of the graphic architecture communication studio Drawyourdreams
2010 - 2011 | Master in Prefabrication and Architectural Industrialization.
2009 | Architect with Honorary Degree by the School of Architecture of Valencia
JOSE IBORRA, Coordinator - Murcia, 1987
2014 - Professor at the architectural graphic communication studio Drawyourdreams
2012 | Architect by the Technical School of Architecture of Valencia
AWARDS
2017 | 2nd Prize. Square Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente Contest. Canet d'en Berenguer.
2012 | 4th Classified Solar Decathlon Europe. Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera. SML system 2011 | 2nd Prize. Competition Auditorium Ciutat d'Elx. Collaboration with Clara Mejía, Juan Deltell and Guillermo Mocholí.
2011 | 2nd Prize. Competition for the marina of Denia. Collaboration with Clara Mejía, Juan Deltell, Guillermo Mocholí and Lahoz + Martí architects.
2008 | Finalist. Multipurpose building competition at the Miguel Delibes Campus. University of Valladolid. Collaboration with Clara Mejía, Juan Deltell and Guillermo Mocholí. 3rd Grade ETSAV Social Council Award.
2008 | Finalist. Verni Contest • Preys for the Design of a Prefabricated Concrete Piece. ETSAV. Collaboration with Sergio Artola, Alejandro Gómez and Ángel López de Ocáriz.
2007 | 1a Honorable Mention Hispalyt Ceramic Chair Contest. Brick Interpretation Center in Seville. Collaboration with Sergio Artola, Alejandro Gómez and Ángel López de Ocáriz.
2006 | 1st Prize. Verni Contest • Prens for the Design of a Prefabricated Concrete Piece. ETSAV. Collaboration with Sergio Artola, Alejandro Gómez and Ángel López de Ocáriz. 2005 | 1st prize XV Iberian Contest of Constructive Solutions PLADUR. Pavilion M2012. ETSAV. Collaboration with Sergio Artola, Alejandro Gómez and Ángel López de Ocáriz.