House AG | Hugo Monte

The challenge was quite clear in it’s definition of what a house should be. The social space for the house family and guest friends was a priority, with a lot of care in detail and strong design personality. These were the rules! The challenge was accepted and the work began.

 There was a pre-existence on the location. With its history but without the charisma that was necessary for it to remain standing and with dignity. It was completely demolished to make way for a new narrative, in the same location but with new characters.

The lot was generous and made us believe that we could extend along the house drawing but legal impositions led to the need of structuring the house around this frame.

Two extended arms, drawn from a desire to embrace the lot core and control it along with the morphology dictations.

 Regarding the connection to street, the new construction does not aim to take center stage, on the contrary, it integrates into the context of the city and the symbiosis it creates with the design of the neighboring facades.

 Three floors stratify the house and shape the spaces according to their function. In the basement, through a patio that extends to the outside and that is connected to the entrance floor, we find the living spaces and functional management of the house. On the other hand, on the entrance floor, elevated from to the street, the transition is made between the city and the shelter comfort. The connection to the interior of the house is not immediate. There is an outer space of transition where the volume is downsized and the difference begins to be felt.

The entrance floor serves as a decompression between the floors that crush it, with the arrival and living areas being more open, such as the kitchen and living and dining rooms. The kitchen faces the street while the living room, central and adjacent to the staircase, visually interacts with the pool and the exterior. The rooms, suites in essence, are located on the top floor and are served, on the same floor, by a more private reading room where new house stories will be told.