Project: 6M Residence
Architects: Jannina Cabal & Arquitectos
Location: Samborondon, Ecuador
Area: 570 m2
Year: 2019
Photographs: JAG Studio
Text by Jannina Cabal & Arquitectos
The 6M residence is located on a great plot next to a lake on which the setting sun falls and combines with the sounds of nature, characteristics that contribute to creating sensations within an architecture that adapts to it.
Looking at nature through glass walls to understand it as part of a whole was the main objective for its design, arriving at the architecture of pure lines, qualifying its volumes to clearly distinguish all the elements, and freeing up the interior space, in short, simplify to the maximum to appreciate the beauty of the architecture and its surroundings in all its purity.
The 6M residence is developed towards the west side of the plot to avoid the afternoon sun and keep the house cool and also to create a large side patio, therefore the first element that is observed when arriving at the land is the enclosure barrier, which is not a wall but an emerald green hill giving privacy to the patio. This vegetation that separates it from the street enters the private area of the house, the garden, and its gallery with large windows, to become an important element of the main façade along with two other pieces that make up its set: the carport with dark iron cladding and the housing itself in andesite stone.
A driveway with an iron gate as entrance directs people to an exterior hall over a crystal lagoon, which then takes you to a situation of discovering where you arrive inside. The lagoon with sinuous lines breaks with the orthogonality of the volumes that make up the residence: two volumes of different heights, rhythmically connected with a horizontal line by their stone and iron facades.
Natural stone, iron, concrete, and glass are the sober and noble materials that make up the project for the distribution of the spaces, all developed on a ground floor except for the service area that is located on the upper level, which is volumetrically hidden so as not to lose the horizontality of its facades.
And its essential goal: to achieve living spaces both inside and outside, where each area lives a relaxing sensory experience, spaces located in such a way to be used by the winds and the sun. For example, the house is fascinating in the late afternoon, when the sun’s rays cross diagonally through the orange curtains and windows in the social area. The center or heart of the house is made up of the kitchen, dining room and a TV room, overlooking the gardens. This space is the distribution axis towards the three areas of the house: service area, bedroom area with its living room, and social area. All connected and with a visual tour of the large side patio. To summarize, characteristics that contribute to creating sensations within an architecture that adapts to it, it is important to consider the mentioned above aspects in order to give the architecture that simply merges with nature and the construction that has been designed.
