The project Casa AV was undertaken as an opportunity to propose shapes, materials and alternative uses, in harmony with that particular environment. The search was then oriented towards a purposeful architecture of a more relaxed housing and whose materiality and formalization was the result of a desire for belonging to that pre-existing reality.
Thus the recognition of the particular microclimate of the maritime forest of Mar Azul and the atmospheres it recreates, as well as the need to concrete the construction at a distance, were determinants of the aesthetic-constructive decisions that defined the work.
The need to capture the light that passes through the trees led us to conceive the house as a “semi covered” and to resolve it with big windows, which provide long hours of natural light and full integration with the scenery, while from the outside they reflect the privileged landscape creating a house with less presence.
Imposed a materiality and a basic program without any particularity, it was sought in the peculiarities of the plot the subject to deal with the project. It was then proposed that different uses could be located in different volumes that would be arranged naturally into the slope.
This first decision triggered successive solutions derived from it: the turn of the plan in relation to the sides of the lot in order to match its natural slope was the first, with this axis alignment of the house in east-west direction and, consequently, the resolution of two clearly differentiated façades.
The house is constructed with two basic materials: exposed concrete and glass. The slabs of the different volumes are supported through concrete walls and beams, and were finished with a minimum slope in order to produce faster runoff of rainwater.
H21 concrete was used with the addition of a fluidifiant so that this mixture, with little amount of water to harden, results very compact and doesn’t require sealing. The few interior walls of hollow bricks are finished in concrete screed; floor cloths are also from concrete screed divided with aluminum plates.
The openings are of dark bronze anodized aluminum. The heating system, since there is no natural gas in the area, was resolved with a system that combines a fireplace, bottled gas stoves and electric stoves.
Design: Luciano Kruk
Design team: María Victoria Besonías, Luciano Kruk.
Photography: Gustavo Sosa Pinilla
http://www.lucianokruk.com/en