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A privileged place within a golf course near to Valencia is the starting point of this project. The proposal is drawn with elliptical traces which contain the program and maximize the possibilities of local urban law by minimizing the volumetric impact on the site.
In this project, we purposely avoided generating a geometry which was parallel to the limits of the rectangular plot. Instead we reached towards the fiction of building a house within a plot with no limits, even inside the golf course. The elliptical form gives a bigger continuity to the façades, losing the idea of separate elevations – north elevation, south elevation or other... Even if the house has one of its sides built at the minimum distance from the plot limit, this geometry allows for a bigger sense of amplitude, with sights always vanishing in the direction of the golf course views.
The use of this elliptical dome-like mechanism admits a large inner volume of two floors, without the house hoarding the plot's outer space. In section, this form provides an alternative to the two-sloped roof houses that already existed in the area. The house is to some extent visually aerodynamic, while its geometry allows it to work well from a hydrodynamic perspective. The surface of the façade is minimum and contains a maximum inner volume, adding a high energy efficiency to its many perceptive qualities. The possibility of using the new system of curved ventilated façade with solid surface was also a motivation to work in this direction. Within the inside of the house, the most important matter was to “square the circle”. In this case and in order to achieve this, service areas were attached to the limits of the ellipse, as a strategy to shape the requested orthogonal inner space.
We had always desired to work with this geometry, but it was essential to first find the place and client where it could work. We are very satisfied of having made this come true.
FRAN SILVESTRE ARQUITECTOS
Fran Silvestre Arquitectos is a studio based in Valencia made up a multidisciplinary group of architects founded in 2005 by architect Fran Silvestre. Influenced by the above mentioned architect, Alvaro Siza, or the sculptor Andreu Alfaro, among others, the studio realizes series of projects that take into account factors such as modulation, serialization or light. Thus, giving rise to buildings of high purity, using constant innovative materials and technologies. The firm's projects have been published in international magazines of architecture and design such as, Pencil, GG, GA Houses, On-Site, or AV3, and exhibited in very important museums and galleries of art and design.
Last year, Fran Silvestre Arquitectos was awarded with the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2013, architecture an urban design (project: House on the cliff) and was nominated to the German Design Award 2105 (Project: Vegamar Seleccion Wine Shop). During 2010, has been awarded the MHK Prize (Berlín) for the project Casa del Atrio (Atrium House); and has been finalist of Concurso internacionalpara la Fundación de Arquitectura Contemporánea.
