Box L Houses | Zegnea Grupo

The “Box L Houses” concept, as used in some of our projects, emerge from the confronts between the circumstances and the search for an answer according to a contemporary style of living. Despite its relatively consolidated urban environment, marked by the existence of single-family houses and small local commercial units, this plot was strongly conditioned by its proximity to principal roads with some car traffic.

The objective was to create “row houses” in order to occupy the most land as possible, and to build as far away as possible from the road to provide courtyards that would allow the creation of an outdoor space.

The houses develop within the same concept of the Box Houses and Box XL Houses, taking advantage of the insertion of the porch and the pedestrian entrance area as a filter from the outside area to the private area. In these houses, the “free plan” is deeply explored, with only a staircase in the separation of the kitchen area to the dining area. The goal was that the social area could take full advantage of the visual permeability to the garden and relationship with the city in the background. The upper floor is defined by three suites, accessed from a “mezzanine” that creates a double height over the dining room, and allows natural light to get in through the skylight.

The “materiality” of the building seeks to take advantage of the closeness to the road, introducing itself as a “mechanical” body. Therefore, "industrial" materials and textures are used, such as glass and aluminium lath working as the main elements for the design of the elevation. The dark pallet of these materials increases this "industrial character", giving a greater durability and cleanliness of the facade against the pollution aggressiveness and dirt to which they are exposed.

The "box" is to be lived, enjoyed, used as a whole, like a machine, the "living machine".