Baensch House. 1935. Hans Scharoun.

 

Baensch House is located in a valley of Havelland, closed to the Havel Lake, out beyond of Berlin`s urban core. Therefore track housing predominates in an area with where predominates a fantastic valley views, surrounded by lush vegetation. The plot is almost rectangular, facing south-east sloping down to The lakes. Thus, the house, which it has two levels, is located at the top of the plot, where it has the main entrance is. The whole programme is arranged to take advantage of the fantastic surroundings of valley.

The house was built for Felix Baench and the brief included the requirements for a little modern family with many different activities which had to be shared in the same space: a space to play piano, a space to work, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a meeting room and a dining room.

Its facts and to take the most of surroundings was the main priorities for Scharoun's project. The main floor was approached like a fan, where different platforms were added to natural ground in each level and opened to the surroundings (to the south) providing the movement to the house.

In each one is located different functions, and its are joined by the stairs:

Each space is defined by its function and a series of smaller stairs unify this interior landscape:

On the top level, study – reading room, to the north, kitchen, to the east and finally the dinning room, which is a little, half-open room that overlooks the landscape. It has big windows despite. It has cantilevers and a great deal of vegetation that covers the house. Thus, the light is filtered through the trees and seeps into the rooms. North light streams into the office. the light of north is introduced to the space through light streaming. On the lower level is the lounge, thought like a relaxing area for looking at the landscape or playing the piano. Bedrooms are located on the second floor where there is a great large terrace over the lounge level.

In Baensch House, the exteriors are as important as the interiors. In fact, Scharoun thought developed the spatial organisation on the plot as an architectural promenade like a promenade architectural. The experience could begins from either the interior of the lounge, from the dining room or from the terrace in second floor, where you can experiment view the landscape. It continues visually along the path, though the different platform levels of the garden until to reach the low bottom of the plot.

Scharoun, as a modern architect, thought carefully considered the structural system like a element completely integrated to a others building component such as furniture or circulation in the house. It is a solid construction of load bearing walls and slabs with reinforced concrete located in the north and oriented in different directions. In the lounge its are replaced by the only only circular column for to allow the free plan. In the south, walls are replaced by a great beam – sunshade with a cantilever too. He proposes a house for the sensory experience. (this is a nice paragraph and I like the last sentence a lot)

The living spaces are defined by parquet floor and furniture which is built-in to articulate generating different spaces. In addition of this, the fireplace is symbolized symbolic, like a tower of brick from the exterior and so many details have been carefully designed, like the handrails that consist of a delicate only single piece of steel or lamps in the lounge, with a circular shade of glass.

Due to the service area are clustered in the rear third of the house, the services solutions are very simple and he uses furniture to conceal the plumbers. The roof pitch according to the climate and overlaps layers of roof to promote the fast evacuation shedding of rain water.

Ana Coronado Sánchez

Bench House is located in a valley of Havelland, closed to the Havel Lake, out beyond of Berlin`s urban core. Therefore track housing predominate in an area where predominates a fantastic valley views, rounded of lush vegetation. The plot is almost rectangular, faced to south-east with slope to The lakes. Thus, the house, which it has two levels, is located on the top of the plot, where it has the main entrance, and its arranged the whole program to gain the fantastic surroundings of valley.

The house was built for Felix Baench and the brief included the requirements for a little modern family with many different activities which had to be shared in the same space: a space to play piano, a space to work, two bedrooms, a Kitchen, a meeting room and a dining room. Its facts and to take the most of surroundings was the main priorities for Scharoun`s proyect. The main floor was approached like a fan, where different platforms was added to natural ground in each level and opened to the surroundings (to the south) providing the movement to the house.

In each one is located different functions, and its are joined by the stairs:

On the top level, study – reading room, to the north, kitchen, to the east and finally the dinning room, which is a little and half open room that see to the landscape. It has big windows despite. It has cantilevers and a great deal of vegetation that covers the house. Thus, the light is filtered through the trees and seeps into the rooms. In the office, the light of north is introduced to the space through light streaming. On the low level is the lounge, thought like a relaxing area for to see the landscape and to play the piano. On the second floor, bedrooms are located. Its contain a great terrace over the lounge level.

In Baensch House, the exteriors are as important as the interiors. In fact, Scharoun thought the organisation on the plot like a promenade architectural. The experience could begin from the interior of the lounge, from the dinning room or from the terrace in second floor, where you can experiment the landscape. It continue on the path, though the different platform of the garden until to reach the low of plot.

Scharoun, as a modern architect, thought carefully the structural system like a element completely integrated to a others building component such as forniture or circulations in the house. It is a solid construction of load bearing walls and slabs with reinforced concrete located in the north and oriented in different directions. In the lounge its are replaced by a only circular column for to allow the free plan. In the south, walls are replaced by a great beam – sunshade with a cantilever too. He proposes a house for the sensory experience. The living spaces are defined by parquet floor and furniture is built in generating different spaces. In addition of this, fireplace is symbolized like a tower of brick from the exterior and so many details has been carefully designed, like the handrails that consist of a delicate only piece of steel or lamps in the lounge, with a circular shade of glass. Due to the service area are clustered in the rear third of the house, the services solutions are very simple and he uses furniture to conceal the plumbers. The roof pitch according to the climate and overlaps layers of roof to promote the fast evacuation of rain water.

Ana Coronado Sánchez

A Vast Programme in a Small Space

I would like to start by writing telling you I am a 'practical' architect, one that is more concerned with the technicalities of it and not the art, so it is quite difficult for me to speak about something I’ve done without a huge sense of reality.

I haven’t spoken about “how light spills through a window”, or about “a space full of colorful abstraction” for 28 years – since my school days. This kind of speech now sounds to me just like poetry - I respect poetry but it is not my business.

It’s been a long time since I realized my work involves more than  just putting together concrete, steel, wood or bricks in a reasonable way to get a building that people can use properly.

I propose you to have a look at this project, built in 2008 whose main difficulty came from the complexities and of the density required by the brief the client asked me for: a four storey bulding with 2 flats, 2 offices 1 storeroom and 5 parking spaces, all in a site of only 150 m2.

To understand the development of the project the basic floor plan layout we ought to focus on is the number 1 section in which we can appreciate how well the available space has been used.

Flats and offices are distributed along the staircase on each floor using the same development layout for the “duplex” stairs in the top floor.

The second stair in the flats goes to the roof above the lift, beside next to where the technical space is.

ALFONSO CASCON


I would like to start this writing telling you I am a practical architect, it is quite difficult for me to speak about something I’ve done without a huge sense of reality.

I haven’t spoken about “how light spills through a window”, or about “a space full of colorful abstraction” for 28 years – since my school days. This kind of speech now sounds to me just like poetry, (I respect poetry but it is not my business).

It’s been a long time since I realized my work involves just putting together concrete, steel, wood or bricks in a reasonable way to get a building thar people can use in a proper way.

So, I propose you to have a look at this project, built in 2008 whose main difficulty came from the dense brief the client asked me for, in a site with only 150 m2., a four storey bulding with 2 flats, 2 offices 1 store and 5 parkings.

To understand the development of the project the main plan we’ve to focus on is the number 1 section in which we can appreciate how well the available space.has been used.

Flats and offices are distributed along the staircase in every floor using the same development for the “duplex” stairs in the top floor.

The second stair in the flats goes to the roof above the lift, beside the technical space.

Rietveld-Schröder House, 1924

Rietveld designed a house in 1924 to accommodate the young widow Schröder and her three children. That same year the house was erected on a plot that was then at the boundary of the city of Utrecht.

The house has two storeys beneath a flat roof. The ground floor contains the hall, a small study, a studio/ workshop, a kitchen/ dining room and a servant's room. The upper floor has an open, flexible plan. It can be divided by means of wood-plank sliding partitions into a landing, three bedrooms, a bathroom and a living room. The partitions have hinged sections that function as doors.

View of one of the three facades

Although the house gives the appearance of a modern reinforced-concrete structure, it was in fact built using a combination of modern and relatively traditional materials. In its design the Rietveld- Schröder House defied practically every tradition. The three visible facades are of equal importance and received equal attention in the design. Each has an asymmetrical layout. Both individually and in relation to one another, the facades present a harmonious, rhythmical alternation of open and closed surfaces. Instead of conforming to a single plane, the rectangular elements that make up each facade retreat or project from the implicit plane and transgress its implicit boundaries. Interior and exterior spaces flow smoothly into one another.

Axonometric view of the first floor

The spatial organisation of the house was revolutionary, breaking as it did with the convention of placing each domestic function in a separate, closed room. The spaces on the ground floor are visually connected by high-level windows at the top of the walls. These rooms are grouped around the centrally positioned staircase; apart from the small room next to the front door, they communicate spatially and hence also function for as circulation. The first floor has an open plan, parts of which may be partitioned off by sliding walls. The size of the spaces is in proportional to the time the occupant spends there. Bedrooms may be merged with the living room during the day. Some of the furniture is incorporated into the architecture, but detached pieces of furniture are in any case flexible and mobile.

The open plan of the first floor

The presence of colour inside and outside

The dislocated ¿disjointed? form Rietveld gave the house was an attempt to express what he considered to be the essence of architecture, namely space. Instead of treating the building as a closed box which separates inside from outside, he considered it in relation to, and as a part of, space as a whole. The colours used inside and outside the house are one of its most striking features. Neither wood, masonry nor steel were left bare, and only planes and lines of red, yellow, blue, white, black and grey are visible. In the interior, primary colours also sometimes appear on rectangular surfaces. Rietveld varied the colours according to the size of the room and the level of natural lighting, and also to ¿enhance the overall appearance? emphasize the overall image. The house offers enough of everything, yet never too much.

Planes, colour and furniture

Clara Mosquera Pérez

Schindler House

Rudolf Schindler was an Austrian architect who left his country in order to start a new life in Los Angeles. Eight years after his arrival he began to design and build this house which would make him famous.

The house was designed for two couples with a shared kitchen and a guest room. It's so important to be aware of this as the building is divided into two zones, each arranged around its own courtyard but providing a coherent architecture for the house as a whole

A slab made of reinforced concrete forms an artificially raised ground plane above the garden where there is space for growing vegetables. Furthermore, the 'curtain wall' element of the design, which runs around the house, enhances the quality of the light.

The Schindler House was built with prefabricated elements wherever possible. In situations where prefabrication was not possible a simulation of prefabrication was used. An example would be the slab of reinforced concrete which was made on site because a prefabricated slab could not be moved by a single person.

From Jean Prouve 'It achieves its elegant effect through the repetitive use of prefabricated metal elements. He conceived a simple system of aluminium wall and roof panels'.


or how about ... 'The doors are made from sheet aluminium and are the height of the building. The wall panels are faced with the same material on either side without differentiating between (sin distinción entre) the interior and exterior spaces. The alternating use of fixed and sliding panels and the visible trusses are the only mediators of this open and flexible space.'

All you need to do is change metal for wood.


The structure consists of is drawn with them which let the entrance of light between them thanks to their modulation, and the rest is built with timber. There is not any material that is used to clad, all of them are working as their real function.

As a result of all of these things, this house is drawn in plan as a rare form that is more interesting than it looks like at the beginning, because it allows three different ways of going into the place in order to access any part of the site without going across another and what it is more important, the domination of the whole site. This is one long sentence and very confusing.

The pan of the house is more interesting than it looks at first glance. It allows three different ways of entering the building which never cross each other More importantly, it respects the site , 'defining space rather than occupying space'.

Esteban 

SCHINDLER’S HOUSE

Rudolf Schindler was an Austrian architect who left his country in order to start a new life in Los Angeles. Eight years after his arrival he began to design and built this house which will make him famous.

The house was design for two couples with a shared kitchen and a guest room, it’s so important being aware of this, because this built is divided and every part dominates a piece of space into the site, allowing the house dominates the whole space of the place.

One slab made of reinforced concrete built the first floor,that is risen above the garden due to the fact that in the garden there is a space used for growing vegetables, furthermore this elevation draws a plan, which joint with the flat roof, improve the quality of the light into the house.

Schindler’s house was built with prefabricated material or a simulation of them, because it was erect by self-building. An example of a prefabricated material simulation is the panel of reinforced concrete which was made on site because a prefabricated panel cannot be moved by a single person. The structure is drawn with them which let the entrance of light between them thanks to their modulation, and the rest is built with timber. There is not any material that is used to clad, all of them are working as their real function.

As a result of all of these things, this house is drawn in plan as a rare form that is more interesting than it looks like at the beginning, because it allows three different ways of going into the place in order to access any part of the site without going across another and what it is more important, the domination of the whole site.

Eames House - Case Study House Nº8

By the end of World War II appeared Case Study Houses as an experiment in USA recycling used armament. In this way, we find the Eames House as an example of inexpensive and efficient prototype homes in California.

Charles and Ray Eames built their own house in 1949 facing the sea though the shade of huge eucalyptus trees. The house, which serves as both their home and studio, is made with a prefabricated steel frame, accented with an array of windows and brightly colored panels that play with scale and texture.

This prefabricated system allowed the frame to be built in only 90 hours. Apart from steel, the structure is also composed of a long concrete retaining wall which holds the slope behind.

Two adjacent buildings maximize the internal space with double height, found at the living room and studio, which besides create a stronger connection between the interior and the exterior eucalyptus trees. This is one long sentence.

Positioning the living room and studio adjacently across a courtyard maximizes the internal space. Besides, by making these two spaces double height the Eameses create a stronger connection between the interior spaces and the eucalyptus trees.

This house is a mix of work and life integrated in pure nature. Moreover, the atmosphere environment where the house is placed situated, produced enhanced by the ¿wood? (madera o bosque?) and the sound of the sea makes a luxurious lifestyle. 

Javier Ostos.

By the end of World War II appeared Case Study Houses as experiment in USA recycling used armament. In this way, we find Eames House as an example of inexpensive and efficient homes in California.

Charles and Ray Eames built their own house in 1949 faced to the sea under shadows of huge eucalyptus throthough it. The house, which serves as both their home and studio, is made with a prefabricated steel frame, accented with an array of windows and brightly colored panels.

This prefabricated system allowed the frame was been built in only 90 hours. Apart from steel, the structure is also composed of a long concrete retaining wall wich holds the slope behind.

Two adjacent buildings maximize the internal space with double high, found at the living room and studio, which besides create a stronger connection between the interior and the exterior eucalyptus trees.

This house is a mix of work and life integrated in pure nature. Moreover, the atmosphere, where the house is placed, produced by the wood and the sea sound makes a luxurious lifestyle.

Number 16 Cañaveralejo street

Number 16 Cañaveralejo street is a building organized on three floors. The ground floor provides flexible-use business premises is a local without use and a single dwelling occupies the floors above. The building takes up the whole site.

Ground, First and Second Floor Plans

The plan of the building is square and its structure is resolved by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the loads. The first floor is the main floor with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and dining room orientated to take advantage of south light. On the second floor are two more bedrooms, services spaces, dining room, bathroom and a terrace behind.

In the centre of the house, the courtyard acts as a light well and channels light through the building, there is a corridor overhead and a heavy solid staircase. The solution was to introduce natural daylight and ventilation through a courtyard, stale air is drawn out by a stack effect and fresh air is drawn in; there is too a patio behind where lush vegetation cools the air.

  

The courtyard allows for circulation, natural light and ventilation and can be easily covered to provide shade. The modest facade is rendered and painted white with a cornice height and the windows play with rhythm and harmony.

Front and Rear Facades

Longitudinal Section

The municipal planning regulations don't allow any other type of roof, it has to be pitched the first six metres clad with ceramic (clay?) solutions tiles and a flat roof behind.

The building is energy efficient with cavity wall insulation, double glazing, pitched roofs with loft insulation and photovoltaic cells providing electricity. Now, I'm waiting for a license to begin the construction. 

Rafael Frutos

Last year, I was working in this project; It's a building organized in three floor, the ground floor is a local without use; the first and second floor are housing. The building take up the whole site.

The plan of the building is square and its structure are resolved by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the loads. The first is the main floor with two bed rooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and dining room orientated to take advantage of south light. On the second floor are two bedrooms, services spaces, dining room, bathroom and terrace behind.

In the center of the house, the courtyard acts a light well and channels light through the building, there is a corridor overhead and a heavy staircase. The solutions was to introduce natural daylight and ventilation through a courtyard, stale air is drawn out by a stack effect and fresh air is drawn in; there is too a patio behind with lush vegetation cools the air.

  

The courtyard allows for circulations, natural light and ventilation and can be easily covered to provide shade. The modest facade is rendered and painted white with a cornice height and the windows with rhythms and harmony.

The municipal planning regulations don't allowed other type of roof, pitched the first six meter with ceramic solutions and a flat roof behind.

The building is energy efficiency with cavity wall insulation, double glazing, pitched roofs with loft insulation and photovoltaic cell.Now, I'm waiting for a license to begin the construction.