[ Jose María Sáez & David Barragán ] Pentimento House

Architects: Jose Maria Saez and David Barragan
Client: Desiree Marin
Location: La Morita, Tumbaco, Quito-Ecuador
Collaborators: Alejandra Andrade
Builder: Jaime Quinga
Prefabricated Elements: Hector Sanchez
Engineering: Cesar Izurieta
Material Aspect: concrete, wood, glass
Status: Complete: 2006
Photographers: Raed Gindeya, Jose Maria Saez

Bearing Flowerpots
A garden and a client without fear. An architecture to be naked to connect with their surroundings. Built with a single piece of prefabricated concrete, which can be placed in four different ways (assembly) which solves structure, wall, furniture, ladders, even a garden facade that is the origin of the project. Outside is a neutral grid that is camouflaged like a fence or hedge. Inside, each wall is different and it fits its scale needs, function, position, etc.

A concrete platform serves as its foundation and adapts to the topography bypassing the trees or incorporating them. On the platform rises the prefabricated system. The pieces are inserted into steel rods anchored with epoxy glue to the platform. These rods and elements of work between pieces generate a tight structure of small columns and lintels especially well suited to the seismicity of the area.

detail axo
The interstices between prefabricated are left open at some points and close in others with a transparent or translucent acrylic and wooden strips, becoming vegetation and light filters. Inside, the same cracks help to support some wood pieces that become shelves, seating, tables and steps.
The house ignores possible finishes. The foundation slab melts with black pigment and hardener to become the finished floor final. The Flowerpots stays in its precast concrete finished as in its interior and exterior. The wood in the interior and vegetation in the exterior are always an important part of the project. On the top floor the lookout becomes the main space and robs its attention for any secondary element, allowing the passage of air and light, aligning the views of the distant mountains. Its role concentrates to link the user with the surrounding environment.

The Blessing of the Low Budget
Economy, simplicity and clarity. Forced to find the answer in terms of the assignment, limiting the budget happily leads us in that direction: stripped of accessory search, aggressively for the reduction and simplify the constructive process. Working with the light, nature, temperate climate and available materials. Few materials and the clarity to use them.

Liberating austerity, allowing the enjoyment, the sensory and the connection with nature. Architecture Synthesis, which is held in a small number of its own laws. A single piece, a single constructive action of stacking the flowerpots. An architecture diluted in nature, the outside is a vertical extension of the garden and inside the minimalist furniture. A flowerpots wall which converges the environment and the user.