With Casa R+ architects of OOIIO have conjured „a mineral“, which passers-by will encounter by coincidence
Many an architect sees the rule that a building should fit in with its environment as a holy dictum. Not so for OOIIO Architects of Madrid: for their Casa R+ it seemed „appropriate to NOT blend with the environment“.
The dwelling is situated in the town of Mora, a community of some 10,000 citizens most of whom are farmers: they call theirs the „World of Olives“ including a museum for olive oil. Streets are narrow and houses low and unobtrusive.
In the mind of architects, the Casa R+ is „a little find, something different that the pedestrian will discover by chance, on the same way that a geologist finds this precious mineral that he has been looking for a long time and suddenly shows up on the most unexpected place“.
The geological metaphor is visible in the façade facing the street and toward the garden: travertine and sandstone clad the sides and both are not local: the travertine originates from the South of Spain and the sandstone is reclaimed from a demolition site in Madrid.
Both types of stone were chosen in the interest of cutting costs.
On the inside of the building the travertine is again visible as flooring in the stairwell albeit in stronger color than on the outside.
More on the subject of geology: the rooms on the interior take on a „a tectonic configuration“, as the architects describe: imagine the atrium as the central axis with dining room and stairs, living room and bedrooms radiating as rectangular blocks from it.
This configuration optimizes the incidence of light with maximum protection from direct sunlight.
„A mineral“ is how architects describe the building.
But the landlord has nothing to do with geology, other than one might speculate. His stipulation: „a modern house with flat roofs“ which the architects developed according to Marta Ventura of OOIIO. „We just search into our own obsessions or the client obsessions to develop our architecture.“
The foregone conclusion can be deduced from the name of the architects’ office: it is the binary code „the real international language of the XXIst century“, as described by Marta Ventura.
The code stands by itself without any inherent message.
Unlike the name Casa R+: the „R“ is the first letter of the landlord’s name and the „+“ symbolizes a cross as in the name of the landlady.
Photos: Eugenio H. Vegue y Francisco Sepúlveda
Renderings: Cosmos Servicios Inmobiliarios
(30.08.2016, USA: 08.30.2016)
