Wrapping and framing glances facing the sea. Los Urrutias house by XPIRAL
05/06/2020.
[Cartagena - Murcia] Spain
metalocus, AGUSTÍN GAMARRA
metalocus, AGUSTÍN GAMARRA
Project description by XPIRAL
A small fisherman's house on the front line of a salty lake in southern Spain was the perfect place to start a new life, fulfilling the dream of living in front of the sea that they have always had...
This old construction needed a renovation to foster comfort and an extension in order to adapt to the requirements of the new tenants.
The proposal is part of an investigation around the idea of Direct Recycling versus Industrial Recycling approach applied to this rehabilitation operation.
It is necessary to reflect on how design can offer a haptic recycling experience, promoting a phenomenological positioning about it. This position is based on the utilization of metabolic design strategies, consisting of the management of matter and energy to produce new space protocols.
The process starts from an initial phase based on strategies such as parameterization and digital manufacturing, aiming to produce designs that can be built with ordinary technologies by means of simple tools.
The project shown begins with a shipping container undergoing an Ad Hoc process of tuning that responds, from a Hyperlocal perspective with a low budget, to a urban context of semi-detached house in a consolidated urban fabric of a fishing village; with the climatic conditions of the marine environment of the Mediterranean Sea; and to the direct connection with a landscape of sun reflections over the blues of the Mar Menor lagoon.
Thus, this reused container begins to be drilled on several spots and customized with specifically positioned prosthesis that enable new spaces such as a shower adapted to human body measurements or a skylight that reconfigures the interior lighting.
Afterwards the volume is wrapped in an insulation layer and a metallic orange truck tarpaulin from a nearby company. The new body is manufactured in a close workshop before being transferred and placed on the pre-existence.
Exposed concrete, underfloor heating, bent sheet metal, plastics such as polycarbonate or GRP configure the expressive materiality of this house in which luxury does not lie in some refined finishes, but in the power of the views, the hoy of the sea breeze, taking a shower facing the sea or letting the light into every corner of the house.
What is it considered luxury and what precarious? Its new inhabitants have no doubt.