[ XPIRAL ] House among Pines

Architects: XPIRAL / Javier Peña Galiano
Location: Murcia, Spain
Collaborators: Lola Jiménez, Susana Velasco, Malte Eglinger
Structural Engineering: IDEEE
Services: Federico Garcia Salmerón
Construction Engineering: Luis Fernando Perona, Miguel Ángel Carceles
Promotor: Juan Carlos López Orenes
Project year: 2003-2006
Budget: US $1,15 M
Constructed Area: 467 sqm
Photographs: Juan de la Cruz Megías

The house among pines acts as an interface between domestic life and the land. It is a device that allows inhabiting the plot. It is not a house for vacation but for daily use. In this way, the whole space is for the enjoyment of its inhabitants.

The lower area is voided in the mountain, inlaid with the uses that hardly require sunlight and the main access to the upper floor. Between this access and the one to the plot, the shadow of the cantilevered upper area creates an exterior suburban hall, thought as a car access.

The upper part is a staple shaped piece stuck to the rock. It remains suspended, and generates in its hollow, south and east façades that let the sun and the breeze in the habitable space.

The central courtyard gives maximum openness between inside and outside, without a lack of privacy. Walls are completely transparent so, by night, when lights are lit, all the spaces of the house become one unitary space.

Installation devices are situated in a peripheral cavity so it is easily accessible for maintenance from the outside. In that way you can see the materials without any make-up: concrete, thermo-clay…The steel cover wraps everything, like a veil. It protects us from the weather and from the aggression of others sights, and allows us to look at the spots we wish.

Over it all, in the sunniest area, there is a solarium and a swimming-pool that get a better sun exposition and better views. The roof blocks the sight from the neighborhood, and takes the eye to the horizon, the valley, the mountains…

SUSTAINABILITY
Formal aspects
By means of the peculiar relation with the site, we obtain open façades to the good orientations: south and east.

The geometry of the house defines a breezy space with shadow underneath the cantilever, where conditions are optimal, even in the hottest days.

The forest is the garden of the house. Once the works were finished, the same number of trees that had been pulled up were replanted around the house. The vegetable matter was recovered by a hydro-sowing with native seeds which allows a natural scattering of the species.

Construction materials
We are using natural materials that link the house with the environment: the rocks from the plot were re-used as raw material for the stone-work retaining walls; vegetation is used as construction material; external pavements are in wood.

“High tech” materials as Robertson sandwich panels, “heat mirror” glazing or thermo-clay are used to manage an optimal energetic performance.

Constructive system
The sun is filtered by a system of mobile slats and a selective glass “heat-mirror” type.

Windows are equipped with A.S.K grilles that assure a light, continuous, cross ventilation with a minimum leakage of heating or air conditioning.

Structure and walls are wrapped by a layer of Robertson sandwich panel and an air cavity that give the house a considerable inertia that allows to keep temperature stable inside.

from  archdaily