IGNACIO BORREGO

Architects: Ignacio Borrego

Location: Madrid, Spain

Year: 2022

Images/text from: http://ignacioborrego.com

By the architects:

Yacer es gratis y cualquier otra cosa es arquitectura. Así definía Jorge Wagensberg la alteración del territorio que provoca la arquitectura. Ésta nos ayuda a protegernos de la incertidumbre del clima, pero además debe permitirnos asentarnos sobre un lugar. Una casa no es solo la envolvente que nos protege del frío y del sol, sino es la alteración de la línea del suelo para poder relacionarnos con él de forma confortable.

Nos encontramos en la vertiente meridional de Somosierra, en el entorno de los ríos Lozoya y Jarama, cerca de su confluencia. La pronunciada pendiente de la parcela y su óptima orientación hacia mediodía invita a dar la espalda a la ladera y girarnos hacía las vistas lejanas.

La premisa de un gran espacio al aire libre y una pista deportiva preferentemente separada convierte al proyecto en una secuencia de muros de contención y aterrazados para hacer posibles las plataformas horizontales, entre los cuales hay dos niveles interiores habitables. El superior, más dedicado a las estaciones frías, acoge la chimenea y está más expuesto al sol, y el inferior, para los períodos estivales, está cobijado dentro del terreno y se abre a las vistas y al espacio de la piscina protegido en todas sus aperturas por las sombras arrojadas por la planta superior.

Ambos niveles se abren hacia el valle, pero mientras la planta superior acota su percepción enmarcada hacia tres hitos diferentes del paisaje, la planta inferior se abre en continuidad hacia todo el horizonte.

Un tercer nivel, sobre la cubierta y expuesto al cielo, está ocupado por una pequeña pista de fútbol que permite además otro tipo de actividad tanto de día como de noche.

Architects: Ignacio Borrego

Location: Madrid, Spain

Year: 2007

Images/text from: http://ignacioborrego.com

By the Architects:

Despite the guidelines drawn on the plots, places need to express their own personality, to arise naturally, to construct themselves. And concretely this one is aligned against a green area, against the concatenation of public spaces that link the old Carabanchel district with its forest through the new neighbourhood. In response to these conditions, the dwellings are compressed onto one edge, onto a single linear piece, in search for the genus loci of the place, views and an optimal orientation in which east and west share the south, generating the limit of the activity, soothing the interior and defining the exterior.

The dwellings are designed from an invariable core with a modulated addition which completes the requirements of the program. This fixed core is constructed attending to the surrounding views and sunlight, and its two main pieces, living and sleeping rooms, are stacked to the south limit, from which they are protected with a filter, relegating a services strip to the back side. Behind this strip, and like clouds drifting over the void, variations are introduced by the addition of programmatic pieces that form the dwellings of two and three bedrooms. The strict order achieved by the linear core is mathematically blurred into a shifting volume. Thus, the dwellings become “machines for living”, and they are designed as such, fitting surfaces and diminishing the transition areas of between rooms.

Its construction responds to a necessity of industrial optimization. Therefore, the structure of the main body is constructed in concrete from a single high accuracy aluminium cast. At the same time, the light steel structure modules that constitute the additional elements enable volumetric variations. This industrialized system facilitates the constructive process, avoiding rubbish and accelerating the implementation times.

Architects: Ignacio Borrego

Location: Madrid, Spain

Year: 2010

Images/text from: http://ignacioborrego.com

By the Architects:

The project had to face two preliminary constraints: a surrounding area burdened by the aesthetic and cultural tradition of the Spanish row-house concept and, on the other hand, the plot’s exposure to solar radiation during the hottest months of the year.

Thus, we decided to search for a hideaway to this appalling landscape, offering a secluded space which features a range of atmospheres that emphasize life within the house -notwithstanding its surroundings- and, besides, for a strategy by means of which the desired climatic confort could be achieved in a passive and flexible way. These decisions resulted in an array of diversely qualified spaces that enable different life trends depending on the varying seasons’ climate.

The house can be described as a topographic volume, a plynth running along the plot emerging from level -0.90m, and perforated with three different types of inner courtyards, which provide the dwelling space with natural illumination and crossed ventilation. This new topography, made up of flat and pitched roofs, generates a continuous terrace which can be enjoyed in many ways. The only volume related to the street is a hovering prism, detached from the plynth, which works as an independent space and creates an interstitial porch below.

In a subsequent phase, the main volume and courtyards will be covered by a natural envelope, an ivy (Ampelopsis tricuspidata) pergola tangled in a simple-torsioned wire mesh, protecting the dwelling from the solar radiation.