Concrete House / BAK Architects
Location: Mar Azul, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Architect: Maria Victoria Besonías, Guillermo de Almeida, Luciano Kruk. BAK Architects
Contributor: Sebastian Indri
Land area: 595.50 m2
Surface: 90 m2
Year built: 2006/2007
Photos: Daniela Mac Adden
The place
Mar Azul is a seaside resort 400 miles south of Buenos Aires, with an extensive beach of dunes and lush virgin forest of conifers. The owners, members of the study, years of knowing this place, they chose a spot in the woods with a challenging topography, from the sea and consequently the most populated area, to build a summer house whose presence did not prevent the surrounding landscape remains impressive protagonist.
The proposal
The fact that we could experience in functional and aesthetic issues in this environment as construction particularly the maritime forest with newly constructed works, Casa Mar Azul, and obtained very satisfactory results, allowing this time, putting emphasis on perfecting experienced and resolve system adapted to the peculiarities of the complex topography of the site chosen.
The search for alternatives should, as in the first experience, but still have few insurmountable limitations: basically have very little impact on that landscape, which is consistent with a low budget, and subsequent maintenance was almost zero and that the construction time shorten as much as possible and that monitoring would be done remotely. With these premises, the house was determined as a proportion concrete prism elongated in height, a small plain building located in an area whose natural relevant feature is the large slope in diagonal (6m difference between a corner and the opposite of lot) it presents. Beyond this kind of natural terrace the slope becomes steeper and the pines begin to ralearse. With this location just modifying the profile of the dune and does not interrupt the view from the lots boundaries of the magnificent landscape surrounding it in a short period from the immediate environment is assessed only a floor (actually the roof of the house) covered the dry foliage of pine trees in a permanent renewal.
As construction is located parallel to the shorter side of the lot and the slope of the dune is oblique to the orthogonal of the house is presented semi-buried in one corner and their foundations exposed in the opposite direction. So that the pure form, forceful, which covers the activities of summer seems to emerge from the dunes with two distinct facades SO buried in the sand with a slit that runs from end to end and whose height is accompanied by the slope of the dune and NO as a fully glazed balcony that allows distant views but at the same time partially protected from the looks from the street for a few partitions "Paravas" which vary depending on position and quantity that protect environments. The glass in the windows run in turn reflect the landscape when the house is visible from outside and "create" and highlight a range of vertical elements of many actors (and reflected real trees, partitions "real Paravas and mirrors) that detract role to the strong presence of pure prism horizontal and offering as the observer moves ever-changing view of the house and landscape that the blanket.
The functional organization
It's almost Catalog. On the front balcony major environments one after the other joined by a deck. On the front depressed, the bathrooms, kitchen and at the end that goes "unearthing" the dining room. The house has a leading access and while income from the more public area should be no doubt the common use, you can also enter this house flexible in use, by any of the other areas. The "furniture Concrete "defining the dormitories are separated 0.70 m from the front through two glazed panels can be fixed or replaced with doors removed if you change the fate of the environments. With this resource anywhere in the house you can rebuild the entire facade and each room is enlarged because visually extends into the next.
The outdoor activities are not intended to be specific for functional reasons, it is the topography itself which is defining the place to leave the car, place the grill or to determine the position of the platform for sunbathing and cool. It has also decided not to landscape the lot to maintain quality of the natural landscape also presents the advantage of requiring no maintenance other than the removal of pine trees that are drying up.
The constructive solution
It was resolved to eliminate this new experience profiles of structural iron (used in the Casa Mar Azul) to push the boundaries of the concept of after-nil. So that the plant 6.90mx 14m housing is covered by a concrete slab that rests in sight, the multiple partitions of the main facade on one side and is solved with an overhang on the opposite it possible to perform an opening in its entirety without intermediate supports. The cantilever is supported by three load-bearing walls moving line of the facade.
The interior walls are of hollow bricks plastered and painted with white latex, the floor is concrete panels divided by smoothing aluminum planks. The encounter between walls and the floor was resolved with a recessed aluminum profile way socket. The openings are of dark bronze anodized aluminum. The heating system, since there is no natural gas in the area, was resolved by installing a salamander important to condition the caloric venue, the first bedroom and hallway. The master bedroom and the bathrooms are heating with electric plates.
A constructive aesthetic system for a particular habitat
The experiment mentioned in the opening paragraphs of memory is related to the routine use of the house at times and warm temperate microclimate in the maritime forest (shade, low wind) makes constructive viable low-cost solution and rapid implementation of a concrete surround in view without additions to improve the thermal insulation and waterproof. For this we used a concrete with the addition of a plasticizer which optimizes a mix with little amount of water during setting is very compact. Thanks to this procedure, the cover can be solved without subfloor slope or waterproof membrane, the slab simply made from scratch with enough slope to allow the free flow of rainwater into the four sides. Furthermore, the expressive quality of exposed concrete and its strength properties and impermeability, make unnecessary any type of surface finish, also achieved a low cost of implementation in the future maintenance finishes and unnecessary because both external and internal walls of concrete required by it as a finish only seen a hand sanding to remove adhesions own execution. On the other hand the color and texture of concrete formwork made with wooden planks is a powerful and unobtrusive presence at a time, allowing the work to be expressed in harmony with the forest.
The treatment of light
Knowing the ambient atmosphere generated by the forest, was paramount to ensure a generous influx of light to any premises. As reinforcement of illumination from the perimeter of the glazed panels are thought to incorporate a light entry on "concrete cabinet" containing the salamander and the wood store. With that goal was planing a keyhole that produces both the walls closing in on being at the ground, lighting effects that will vary with the elapse of the day. The same applies to the changing shadows that are throwing the multiple partitions of the main facade
The control of light and visual from the outside was resolved with black out curtains.
Furniture
Furniture designed for the study were conducted with Canadian pine reclaimed wood crates from engine. The table is a concrete slab attached to the system of external walls. The two "concrete furniture" that divide the main rooms have the function of wood store, wardrobe and shelf allowance.
Images
