Project: NIU House / N290
Architects: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
Location: Valencia, Spain
Completed 2022
Photo Credits: Jesus Orrico
Text by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
The NIU project arose as a way to innovate on construction systems, seeking to increase precision in the materialization of architecture and, through these solutions, to improve the quality of human environments, making them more sustainable and healthier.
In NIU’s systematized architecture, each N290 is the same and at the same time different from the rest. The adaptation of the model to their landscape makes them unique. Its insertion into the topography, in this case over a slope, leads the project to an accommodation of an access staircase that becomes a project in itself. The NIU house saves and circumvents the imposing pine trees that characterize the house.
The configuration of the house is made around a central courtyard, which reminds us of an impluvium. Four pieces with the same morphology, open on the long sides and closed on the short sides, are radially intertwined generating four outdoor spaces with different characters. An exterior space for the day area, another for the kitchen, an exterior space related to the bedrooms and another that functions as a pedestrian entrance area. The interior spaces of the house extend to the exterior, with exactly the same dimension, like a carpet that gives continuity to the spatial sequence. Thus, the habitable volume is extended and only the shade and the climate control will tell us whether we are inside or outside.
The building envelope is materialized by a piece of extruded aluminum. The metallic sheen of the aluminum helps to integrate the house to its surroundings as it adopts the tones of the garden around it and its appearance is modified during the day, as the temperature of the light changes. We are fascinated by the sensation this evokes when we implement each house with this system, the result is simultaneously identical and unique.
