2024
MCHAP
Casa en Capilla
Estudio Ventura
Capilla del Señor, Buenos Aires, Argentina
July 2022
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Daniel Ventura (Architect - Project director), Andrés Virzi (Project team)
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Luciana Teper (Collaborator), Dana Martínez De'Nobili (Collaborator), Martin Cribilone (Collaborator), Javier Sandrini (Collaborator), Luis Scazufca (Collaborator
CLIENT
Gustavo Kuryluk, Daniel Ventura
PHOTOGRAPHER
Javier Agustín Rojas
OBJECTIVE
“It is the ground that guarantees architecture’s condition as an object. Without the ground, without a specific and unique place, architecture does not exist. (...) I would like to reserve this concept of architecture for the authentic permanence of the built reality, and such a desire implies a “substantial immobility” that can only be achieved with a place...” - Rafael Moneo. Revista Circo 24
The house highlights the production systems with which it was built. The three systems used in the house are: masonry, moulding and assembly, according to the classification made by Ignacio Paricio, and the architectural structure is generated between their links. The raised platform of reinforced concrete, the access ramp and the pool are the elements that link the project with the land.
The moulding production system appears in the territory, leaving a mark on its surface. The structure of metallic profiles with slabs of vaults built in bricks constitutes the assembly system that generates the support for the construction. The enclosures are made of brick walls that make up a masonry system and a perimeter edge of metal structure and sheet metal on the upper floor of the house that configures and limits the architectural space.
The flexibility of the spaces on the ground floor allows a multiplicity of uses. The bathroom, kitchen and barbeque cores are arranged so that they configure devices that mediate between the different services. On the upper floor, the spaces for sleeping and studying incorporate the action of contemplating the rural landscape through the balcony that functions as an intermediary space between the outside and the inside.
CONTEXT
The house is located in a newly urbanized sector that borders an extensive rural area. The house is placed on the border, touching only with two points, detaching itself from the urban fabric, and dialoguing with the open field.
This operation raises the dichotomy between the consolidated fabric of the city and its relationship with a rural landscape. The urban edge is part of the research of the project, it determines this intermediate relationship, and this ambiguous space is calibrated to enable antagonistic positions.
The built limit allows us to perceive a continuous space as a blurred threshold that generates greater spatial fluidity. The limit of the dividing wall is an interstice that stresses the interior and exterior spaces from which a multiplicity of situations is generated. Here the horizontal and vertical routes of the house are constituted, and the courtyards that the architectural structure produces are proposed.
The north side of the house constitutes the second intermediary operation towards the garden and towards the open field. Here both the transition between the interior and the exterior and the filters of light by the incidence of the sun takes place. These gradients allow light control inside the house and produce a space for contemplation. The balconies on the upper floor and the semi-covered terrace on the ground floor are also configured here.
PERFORMANCE
The House in Capilla was built for a member of the studio and his family, as a weekend retreat. The commission was based on the need to find a link with nature, close to the city, and with better environmental qualities. These spaces respond to the objective of finding a new way of relating to other possible ways of living, without leaving aside the usual ones, and to create a space for social events and gatherings that would allow the strengthening of relationships.
As the house is not regulated by a set program but by actions tending to reflect on the places to sleep, eat, rest, meet, wash, contemplate, etc., thinking about contemporary activities, new family compositions and new technologies, what made it possible for the inhabitants to fully adapt to the space.
The house manifests itself by understanding its relationship with the surrounding landscape. The uses are generated by providing the subject with the possibility of interacting with the exterior space through a variable boundary, which at the same time, from the inside, protects the inhabitant from the weather conditions. It particularly inquires about the thickness of said boundary. On the threshold between interior, semi-covered and exterior spaces and acts on their links. These design operations transform the space and make it possible to establish different degrees of hierarchies and set up new forms of circulation. The interaction between the proposed spaces produces new perceptions in the subject.
