Breaking up a large house into smaller volumes to fit with the location was the challenge KLM Arquitectos took up in a new waterside development in the north of Buenos Aires province.
The house is located in a neighbourhood in the north of Buenos Aires.
Build on the shore of a Lake and the only double lot in the neighbourhood meant the house already had more presence than the rest. The strategy behind the design was to create a unified collection of separate volumes to give the appearance of multiple units rather than a massed whole from the curb side. Minimising the six hundred square metres of the house and fitting with the scale of the surrounding houses was the mammoth task.
Yet in doing so they also looked to achieve a degree of intimacy and isolation from the surrounding architecture, their intention was to create a micro-climate within the C shaped design of the house. The project has as much emphasis on controlling both the views from the rear of the house, as it does on controlling views in from the other three sides. From the roadside the white mass of the house is broken up through the used of redwood doors and entrance panelling, subtly set aglow by uplights in the evening.
The dissolution of the boundaries between inside and outside is a defining result of the design. There’s a wide variety of visual connections through the open plan house, across both the horizontal planes of the two levels and as double height space between the two, resulting in a certain spatial complexity. These connections form a series of interior courtyards, a few single level, others double height and with different proportions, acting as gateways from inside to out and at the same time acting as recipients of both direct and filtered natural light.
Organized simply, the ground floor focuses on leisure and services and the top floor is of a more private nature and firmly geared towards sunshine and the views. The kitchen, set in the eastern wing of the C shaped layout, protrudes out into the garden. Fantastic use of the solid white kitchen top means the gas hobs, sink and preparing area, extend down to form the breakfast table for 6 and an eat in kitchen. Conveniently located just outside the kitchen door, is a built in BBQ with basin, under a loggia created by the upstairs bedrooms.
Rounding out the ground floor are a series of living areas, separated for formal and informal entertaining by a tree filled courtyard to the front, and an internal bamboo courtyard to the rear, which provides the occupants with glimpses back through to arriving guests and forms a small reception area, rather than letting the front door straight into the living room.
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Heading upstairs, all four upstairs bedrooms face north-northeast and capture the most of the afternoon sun and views, each with an en-suite bathroom. The tree filled courtyard below extends up allowing for a corridor behind that separates the master suite to the west, from the rest of the bedrooms. Adding to the master bedroom are: a walk in wardrobe (almost the size of the other bedrooms), a large sunken tub, and deck with spiral stairs down to the pool.
Plans
Architects: KLM arquitectos
Federico Kelly, Paula Lestard & Hernan Maldonado
Collaborators: Maria Guglielmini, Graciana Grau & Alejandro Campagnola
Project Completed: Dec 2007
Location: Talar del Lago 2. Partido de Tigre. Provincia de Buenos Aires.
House Size: 600m²
Plot Area: 1800m²
via: KLM Arquitectos