Substraction House

It sits on a square lot with a slight incline and a generous view. Since the future construction of neighboring residences could potentially compromise much of the surrounding vistas, the architects chose to excavate the central portion of the plot. This created a basement level with a sunlit courtyard, garage, and garden at street level, while simultaneously raising the main house above ground level. “As the street slopes downward, the frontal view was preserved,” explains the architect, one of the project’s authors.

The floor slab and the roof slab form two parallel exposed concrete planes that define the space in which the program unfolds. Most of the rooms are integrated with outdoor terraces, except for the bedrooms and bathrooms, which open to the exterior and are designed as small white boxes fitted between the slabs. However, the strong horizontality of the project is offset by voids carved into the horizontal planes. These voids are staggered, associated with staircases, and allow for varied sightlines and visual connections between people in the living room, the pool, and the garage garden. Vegetation also interacts with these voids—trees planted on the lower level are growing and beginning to fill them in. “The challenge is to give a conventional program an unconventional appearance,” says the architect.

These openings also mark the passage of time and changes in weather. “Time is perceived through the shadows cast by the voids in the slab, which shift throughout the day, creating a geometry that defines the project. And the wind that moves freely through the house is also an integral part of the architecture,” says one of the designers. The living room opens to the terrace through large glass doors which, when retracted, dissolve the boundary between indoors and out. “Architecture is a medium for ventilation, and this house has no clear separation between interior and exterior—something that is always a key concern in our projects,” the architect notes.

Built with in-situ cast reinforced concrete, the house follows a conventional layout, including living areas, four en-suite bedrooms, and a guest restroom on the upper floor. The lower level houses the laundry area and staff quarters. The internal area is relatively small compared to the outdoor space, and the pool—whose water reflections soften the dominance of exposed concrete—is also a volume fitted into the first slab, oriented towards the best view. The result is a refined, compact house, despite its large footprint—an impression reinforced by the polished concrete floors and white-painted masonry walls.

For the architect, landscaping should not be considered an afterthought. “The house will only truly be complete once the landscaping has matured. It is one of the main elements of architecture, as it helps structure the interior spaces and, together with time and wind, shapes the exterior ones.”