HOUSE ON MOUNTAINSIDE OVERLOOKED

ARCHITECTURE   FRAN SILVESTRE ARQUITECTOS

PROJECT ARCHITECT  Fran Silvestre , Mª José Sáez
PROJECT TEAM    Pedro Vicente López López | Architectural Technician
                                 José Ángel Ruíz Millo | Architecture
                                 José Vicente Miguel López | Architecture    
                                 Fernando Usó Martín | Architecture
                                 Sara Sancho Ferreras | Architecture

INTERIOR DESIGN   ALFARO HOFMANN

CONTRACTOR   Cooperativa Montemayor

PHOTOGRAPHER  Fernando Alda   more photos

LOCATION    Ayora. Valencia

SITE AREA    477,06 m2
BUILT AREA    230,00 m2

BUILDING SERVICES  Sanitaryware Toilet and bidet | C52 Series, Catalano
                                        Wash-basins | Supercity, Sanico
                                        Sanitary Fittings Bathrooms | Talis S2, Hansgrohe
                                        Kitchen | Minta, Grohe
                                        Lighting Custom-sized linear fluorescent light (Studio2)
                                        Light Fittings  LS 990 Series, Jung

FINISHES  Paving  Interiors | Capri random paviers (large format)
                   Exteriors | Capri random paviers (large format)
                   Surfaces         Walls and ceilings | Plasterwork
                   Bathrooms | Capri stone panelling
                   Exteriors | Thermal insulation + white external render (Sate Vipal / Parex)
                   Paint  Matt plastic paint RAL 9010

METALWORK AND LOCKSMITHING    Interior  Internal and cupboard doors |
                                                                    White lacquered MDF RAL  9010 | (Carpintería Sergio)
                                                                    Exterior Lacquered open pore timber (Carpintería Sergio)
                                                                    Glazing  Climalit + Stadip safety glass

EQUIPMENTS  Kitchen  White lacquered MDF RAL 9010
     (Carpintería Pedro Segura Landete)

The building is located in a landscape of unique beauty, the result of a natural and evident
growth. The mountain, topped by a castle, is covered by a blanket housing through a system of
aggregation by simple juxtaposition of pieces generated fragmented target tissue that adapts to
the topography.

 

The project proposes to integrate into the environment, respecting their strategies of adaptation
to the environment and materials away from the mimesis that would lead to misleading historicism,
and showing the time constructively to meet the requirements of the "new people." In this way the
house is conceived as a piece placed on the ground, joining in the gap. A piece built on the same
white lime, the same primacy of the massif on the opening, which takes the edge of the site to
have their holes and integrated into the fragmentation of the environment.

 

The indoor space is divided by the void that is the core of communication cut parallel disposition
of the mountain without touching it. On the ground floor are the garage and cellar, on a volume it
has two floors with four rooms. Two of them, the rooms at the intermediate level are open to the
private street, the other two on the upper level overlook above the houses opposite, the Valley of
Ayora. One of them, the study is opened in turn to the central double height, incorporating it into
their space. Across the gap, and on the mountain, are the areas facing the garden day
illuminated by light reflected on the south slope of the castle oxidized.

1) How would you describe this building and its features?

The house is located against a stunning natural backdrop. Crowned by a castle, the
mountainside has a cloak of individual houses juxtaposed together to weave a fragmented broken white fabric adapted to the singular topography.

2) What were the most importantant wishes/demands of the clients? (What kind of house did they
wish for?)The main demand of the owners was that they want a privacy and very lighted house, likewise,
the adjusted budget than was available was a big handicap with which we considered at all times.

3) In which ways is the environment around the house taken into consideration? How does these
powerful surroundings "corresponde" whith the building? Conceived to fit into its surrounding environs, the project applied various strategies to adapt to
the environment and its materials. At the same time, it deliberately eschewed any attempt at
mimicry that might suggest a pretension to false historicism, instead respecting its constructive
contemporariness in responding to the demands of its “new dwellers”. The house is designed to
accommodate the uneven ground level. Built throughout using white lime, a sense of constructive
continuity reduces openings to a minimum expression, while at once making the most of the plot's
contours and conforming to the fragmentation of the environment.

4) Can you say something about what kind of atmosphere the house expresses (is it, for
instance, harmonic, The interior space revolves around the void of the communication core, arranged in parallel to
the mountain section, yet separate from it. The ground floor contains the garage and wine cellar,
above which are two floors with four rooms. The two rooms on the intermediate floor face a
private street, while the remaining two, on the top floor, look out over the Ayora valley, above the
level of the houses in front of it. One of the rooms, the study, also opens onto, and embraces, a
central double-height space. The day area is on the other side of the central void, looking onto
the mountain itself, and opening onto a garden bathed by the Southern sunlight which reflects on
the rust-coloured talus of the castle.

5) What were the main challenges of drawing/building this house?The main Challenge was to integrate into the environment, respecting their strategies of
adaptation to the environment and materials away from the mimesis that would lead to misleading
historicism, and showing the time constructively to meet the requirements of the "new people."

 

6) The residents are a family. The father is a historian and the mother is history professor.