[ENGLISH VERSION]
Casa JA!
Compact, refreshing and enjoyable house.
BIZNA estudio (Rocío García + Pedro Torres)
Client: Private
Location: Los Prados. Albacete (Spain)
Project: 2019
Construction: 2020-2021
Surface area: 200 m²
Project design: BIZNA estudio (Rocío García + Pedro Torres)
Structures + Systems: Rocío García Peña + Pedro Torres García-Cantó
Photographs: Imagen subliminal (Miguel de Guzman + Rocío Romero)
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Awards:
>> Castilla-La Mancha Architecture and Urbanism Award. COACM Emerging Award Winner
>> Architecture (National) Award 20-21. CSCAE. Shortlisted
>> HISPALYT Architecture Awards. Category: Brick. Shortlisted
“Don’t touch it anymore, that’s the way the rose is”. The popular
architecture of La Mancha is the way it is. To want to “improve it” by
adding eaves, imposts, jambs, balconies, skirtings…, is to dress it in a
mask, to ridicule it, to decompose it.
[“No la toques ya más, que así es la
rosa”. La arquitectura popular manchega es como es. Quererla “mejorar”
añadiéndole aleros, impostas, jambas, balcones, rodapiés…, es vestirla de
máscara , ridiculizarla, descomponerla.]
Arquitectura popular manchega
Miguel Fisac
CASA JA! is a sequence of situations. A succession of rooms and retreats that share the objective of generating spaces to enjoy and gather together. The main room, the central one: is the living room. This piece allows to pass-through, it communicates the front garden (access and winter) with the back garden (living and summer). Since you enter the plot, the sequence of garden-house-garden is perceived. While the deciduous trees in the front garden grow, the porch acts as protection, a shade for the summer that absorbs and evacuates the heat so that it does not reach the interior.
The high shed ceiling in the living room allows the hot air to rise and be evacuated by a simple system (sensor + fan) creating comfort for the summer. It is flanked by two equipped walls, one is a brick wall that hosts the passage to the bedrooms, the closets and the toilet. On the other side, the wall is for circulation, it connects with the garage, with the kitchen and with the porch of the barbecue by means of a window-bar.
At the back, almost half of the plot becomes a meadow with the swimming pool, protected from the street. This cooler and wetter northeast side introduces the necessary humidity to generate a feeling of freshness on summer nights. In fact, the bedroom band is articulated by a corridor that goes from facade to facade, opposing two doors that allow the air to flow by the feet of the beds. The mosquito nets are responsible for securing the night while the louvered shutters ensure the siesta. The corridor crosses an atomized bathroom that maximizes the use without multiplying the pieces. The west side is destined to the garage, which is part of the general volumetry, the outside toilet and the back porch, the summer porch.
The use of ceramic materials articulates and emphasizes the facade, in the bedroom area is a baseboard that when it turns to the porches takes the full height, even it is introduced into the interior. The brick, semi handmade, exposed, with a wide mortar joint, has the quality of absorbing a certain degree of humidity, which allows to prolong the situation of comfort. This effect allows for a pleasant breakfast at the entrance and even a cool evening snack on the back porch. In the interior, the ceilings with exposed ceramic vaulting also reinforce this effect. The flooring, ceramic, extends like a carpet to the access, making it an extension of the same width from the porch and the driveway. The interlocking ceramic tiles roof is micro-ventilated to evacuate heat and prevent it from reaching the interior. Moreover, the entire roof is finished with brick, from the stepped eaves to the side round offs and the gutter overflow spillways.
The brick becomes an expressive resource that together with the indigo (añil) shutters, the volumetry and the large white walls reconnect the house with the traditional La Mancha house. The vents, the most recognizable image of the house -as it is almost the only thing that overlooks the street- recovers the traditional “suspirón” (sigher). The brick also becomes grilles for the sanitary chamber, sills and thresholds by header and soldier placed bricks. And the indigo color (añil), so characteristic of the La Mancha baseboards, is used for the shutters. In this way, the traditional palette is nuanced but not expanded.
The result is a house where to spend good times, to gather the whole family; where its youngest inhabitants play badminton in the living room, which they also cross by bicycle in an indoor-outdoor circuit. Or even set up a big trampoline in the garage. A place to enjoy and share.
