Project: Nagus House – “Behind the Tree”
Architects: IASE Arquitectos
Team: Germán Vilchez, Lucas Asensio, Maria Vega
Location: Córdoba, Argentina
Area: 345 m²
Year: 2018
Photographer: Gonzalo Viramonte
“Detrás del Árbol” (Behind the Tree) From the start, we felt the focal point to this house had to be the tree. It had to be the host that welcomed you to the Nagus house. It had to be framed in a way that highlighted its salient character, and it had to be protected, from inside and outside the house.
In our firm, the challenge is always to interpret the needs and requirements of our customers.
NAGUS, the pet name we used for the young couple who chose us for this assignment, wanted to combine the social and the private life in one level of the house and articulate both aspects in the daily use of it. They wanted to incorporate their daily work-related tasks in a separate area within a flexible space that could also be transformed according to the different needs.
The parcel was one thousand square meters, the front was challenging due to its unevenness, and we also had to address the measurement norms of the neighborhood, so we developed the program in 3 levels.
The sublevel, for the covered parking garage, has room for 3 vehicles and an entrance ramp that serves as courtesy parking for guests. The tree provides shade and canopies this area, which in the future will be a storage and wine cellar. The ground floor has social and private areas integrated to the outer green space and to the first level. This is where the office, playroom and multiple-purpose room balconies the social area of the house and integrates with the exterior through large window and skylights in the ceiling.
The functional plan is distributed throughout an area that contains all the private areas of the house. It has direct support to the services, which are strategically located towards the least favorable orientation of the Nagus house, so as to achieve a balanced and linear internal circulation.
The area for daily use is integrated to a more intimate and internal patio; this is the home to the aforementioned tree and it can be independent from the social area by means of sliding panels that disappear behind a supporting furniture. The social area is highlighted by the double height of the space and also by the dimensions, since it expands and opens in full towards the gallery.
