PIN8 HOUSE | PMMT arquitectura

Located in the Baix Empordà region, the PIN8 House was designed in accordance with the urban planning and heritage variables of the town in which it is situated. The local building regulations, which conditioned the volume of the building, the proportion and size of its windows and doors, and the materials and colours of its envelope, were viewed as an opportunity and guided the entire process of creating and designing the PIN8 House. As Patricio Martínez, architect of the house, is fond of saying: “Every restriction is always a blessing for our projects.”

The single-family home, a two-storey structure with a rectangular floor plan, sought to make the indoor and outdoor spaces as permeable as possible by creating large apertures and double-height ceilings on the ground floor and landscaped courtyards on the first. The ample ground-floor apertures open directly onto the garden, while the double ceilings create visual diagonals leading to the sky or the garden from different angles and heights. The three courtyards on the first floor, which made it possible to reduce the void-to-solid ratio on the facade stipulated by building regulations, bring natural light and greenery into the built structure while also facilitating a seamless indoor-outdoor transition.

The combination of these three strategies—apertures, height and courtyards—not only generated constant and varied connections to the exterior from every room in the house, but also increased the dwelling's bioclimatic efficiency. Thermal comfort is guaranteed by apertures whose orientation provides maximum sunlight in winter and cross-ventilation, using the stack effect to prevent a stratified thermal environment, in summer.

The main residence is located on the ground floor, reserving the upper storey for a guest bedroom and bath, with the landscaped courtyards and lofts overlooking the double-height areas. The location and arrangement of the staircase and lofts which connect both floors will allow more bedrooms to be added in future if the family grows, adding functional flexibility to the structure.

The most frequently used spaces—bedrooms, studio, laundry room, bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and living room—are located on the ground floor and facing the garden. The central open-concept area is a combination of kitchen, living and dining room with a double-height ceiling, completely open to the garden and one of the upper courtyards. On this level, as mentioned, the interior is connected directly to the garden by large sliding doors that free up the corners of the rooms when open and are fitted with external moveable wooden shutters to block out solar radiation.

The permeable ground floor and the more opaque envelope on the upper level were created by installing a frame of metal columns around the perimeter that support a structure of cross laminated timber (CLT). This structure, visible from inside the house, resembles the interior hull of a great upside-down ship or the ribcage of the whale from the story of Pinocchio, to which the building owes its name (PIN8 is pronounced PIN ocho, as the famous puppet is known in Spanish). The wooden frame, furniture and other building elements (lattices and ceramics) were supplied by local manufacturers and workshops, so the PIN8 House can be described as a pre-industrial, “home-grown” project.

The healthy building materials and finishes used in the PIN8 House, selected from the Friendly Materials® library, are not only respectful of local industry and aesthetics but also ensure the health of its occupants. The finishes boast low volatile organic compound (VOC) emission rates and excellent acoustic properties.

The leitmotif of the PIN8 House is a harmonious balance between two determining factors: the environment and the needs of its occupants. The first was addressed by choosing the right materials, building system, and distribution and integration of indoor and outdoor spaces, and the second by designing the house’s different areas to meet the current and future functional needs of the PIN8ers.