The context assumes a very important role for the design of the ‘Cotopaxi House’ since it is a great tool to be able to define the form and project it with nature without losing the identity of the place.
A modern and quiet house located outside the urban area, located in one of the mountainous areas and in turn the land is in a high mountain topography in Cotopaxi Ecuador. The residence has slopes and places of contemplation that are used to have a good view of the volcano and the whole place.
¨El Alambique¨ house, located in the Puembo region at the outskirts of Quito, between the Chiche and Guambí rivers has been located at a sloped site, overlooking a ravine. One of the design challenges was to sort out a home with a 70% first floor architectural program under the sloped topographic conditions, while allowing the internal garden to be mostly flat and fluidly connected to the inner and outdoor activities.
The Visores houses are located between two mountain ranges in the Cumbayá valley, they find their place in the world based on their orientation. The perception is complete, when what we see from the windows belongs to the house as well. Hence the importance of projecting it from the point of view of those who are going to visit it.
Selva Alegre was created to take inspiration from the surrounding environment, the Andes Mountains in Ecuador. This wooden house is located away from the city, in an open landscape ideal for a retreat space. The idea was to make a house that would be unified conceptually and visually with the surrounding natural scenery. The dwelling sits at one end of the lot, near the edge of a creek, allowing uninterrupted visuals throughout the project. The strategy was to leave the ground floor as open as possible and the programmatic divisions clear, so that the design resembles that of a typical “hacienda house” but with a modern twist. We wanted to reinvent the user experience of these centuries old weekend escapes, a typology that has historically dominated the mountainous landscapes from Colombia to Peru. Our concept was to return to the roots of the hacienda in terms of form and material. Bring back the use of wood, stone and clay but with a contemporary mindset, one that felt light and airy. This strategy resulted conceptually in a continuous wavy blanket which gently protects the program below it.
MVRDV has revealed the design for The Hills, the firm’s first project in South America. Designed for Quito-based developer Uribe Schwarzkopf, the project is located on the Guayas riverfront in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Comprising six residential towers atop a mixed-use plinth that creates a lively, landscaped “valley” on its roof, the design is inspired by the many juxtapositions found in Guayaquil itself – from the broad expanse of the river contrasted with nearby mountains, to the sight of modern high-rises on the shoreline set against the colourful hillside settlements of the Santa Ana hill.
What is vernacularism, but the knowledge transmitted in time and translated into space? In the constructive case, taking advantage of the materials available in the area and adapting them to the architecture that responds to the needs of the users.
Casa Cóndor responds to the architectural program of receiving, hosting, cooking and living. The house is located in one of the valleys of Loja, Ecuador (Malacatos) with a warm climate and periods of intense rain. It is implanted on a family lot of 0.2 hectares, where there was a precarious house made of adobe, wood, tile and tejuelo floors. We decided to “recycle” it, dismantling it adobe by adobe and tile by tile. The rural environment is marked by tapia, bahareque and adobe houses. The bricks are manufactured in the town of Malacatos, where the local workforce still has the knowledge to build with these traditional systems. We opted for a structure of clay and wood, masonry of adobe, bahareque, reed, brick (in humid areas) and a tile roof, using recycled materials from the old house. The doorways and terraces predominate in Casa Cóndor, since being outdoors and enjoying the views are fundamental requirements of the program proposed by the family.
Article source: Charles Todd Helton Architect, Inc.
A large building I helped renovate, down in Ecuador. The village it is located in is called El Naranjito, which is about 3 hours away from the city of Quito, and is located in the rainforest. It has 15 suites, a nice kitchen, large living areas, and many nice spaces to relax and watch the adjacent river.
A house raised on one floor, on a corner lot of 700m2. The mandatory withdrawals occupy a large part of the land, that’s why it was decided to be solve it with an L-shaped configuration, that with the same construction, forms an enclosure towards the street and contains the social area and a private patio to which the House opens for the enjoyment of outdoor spaces. The Urbanization where the project is located, prohibits front enclosures, which harmonizes the coexistence between neighbors, but it limits the privacy of the ground floor spaces, so these perimeter facades show hermeticism and introspection towards the interior.
The house as it is, it can no longer be the same. In the moment in which we realized that the life contained within the wall is the most valuable, some aspects that have been important have been moved in the background. The D4 house is based on three main pillars, considered as a tool for evaluated the process of decision making during the design process.
A canvas characterized by its rough texture, which arises from the aesthetic configuration created by the concrete block masonry. It is the skin of this house that seeks the balance between the material, the spatiality it contains and the ornament it exhibits. The work distributes its program in three levels, the first being composed of the garage area and the main access, the second of the social area, while the third level corresponds to the resting area with three bedrooms. The spatial organization is aimed at minimizing the impact on the terrain, taking advantage of the ascending sloping topography, which is manifested with a front facade of three levels and a rear of only two.
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