Casa de Uno | Dear Architects

A Shelter for Individuality.

From a practical perspective, it is to notice how shelter and intimacy are achieved on this specific construction that raises from a quoin, long and narrow, lot. Casa de Uno envelope recalls the notion of a back that bends over to protect against “the inhospitable of the times to do”; and for the one that knows how to observe, it allows him to sense an intimacy without distractions.

Located along the narrow side, the pedestrian door, a wide steel plate, slight but of apparent heaviness, gives entrance to a cut of air that extends along the site, limited by the high neighboring wall and the even higher internal façade of the house; it is a gorge of light with the sufficient width to saturate with clarity each of the house precincts. The one that enters the house dwells this open air, that draws their views up to the east side of the sky. Beams of light, at entering, reflect planes of clarity over the long adjoining wall.

Interior spaces are ordered with economy and give way to each other on a linear functionality. At ground floor, a single room holds the living areas that gather the inhabitants of the house; here the saloon with a double height performs its unifying role, working as the place where all the spaces converge. Bedrooms are set in one row at the top level; access is throw the staircase that beings at the saloon and flows into a long and tight corridor that connects at the time that enables privacy, this passage breathes through the small slit window of the exterior façade.

Although each space preserves its functional independence, together they constitute a space of unity sheltered by the robustness of the exterior facade and the gorge of light.

Text by: America Miranda.