This project starts with an assignment by four people, two couples, a filmmaker, a psychotherapist, an anthropologist, and a dancer, who regularly go to Los Pulpos spa, located 40km south of Lima. They want to enjoy their days together on the beach. The result of the project is two houses that touch each other with simplicity and elegance, a dialogue between local materials and the landscape, between the transparencies and the views towards the sea. A vertical journey through the different levels until reaching the roof where you can watch the sunset while swimming in the pool. 

Casas Calx project is located in front of the Pachacámac Islands, habitat of numerous species of seabirds, known by their biological diversity of the marine-coastal ecosystems. This spectacular location, together with the topography, inspires the distribution of the houses, which are designed in two blocks around a central patio where different plant species live, and which allows all the rooms to have natural lighting and ventilation.

The two houses follow a compositional symmetry in the design, sharing the logic of the distribution on three levels, all of them with sound and spatial independence. The rooms are diaphanous and open, allowing flexibility of uses and promoting the daily use of outdoor spaces as an extension of them. They communicate through the patio on the lower level and with wooden walkways on the upper levels.

The main materials are lime, bamboo and wood, low-impact materials with resistance to the climate and local seismic movements. To optimize and speed up the construction, the use of lime blocks is selected, reinforced for the structural elements and simple system for the partition elements. Located on sandy terrain with a pronounced slope, the use of concrete has been minimized, limiting its use to the structure in contact with the ground.

Lime as an environmentally friendly building material has many advantages, one of which is its long service life. Its manufacturing process is not polluting, as being so abundant in nature it avoids transportation. As properties stand out its ability to regulate humidity, and its extraordinary insulating capacity, both thermal and acoustic, produce a lower energy demand that translates into economic savings for the inhabitants and fewer toxic emissions for the atmosphere.

Casas Calx is a project that supports contemporary design through material culture and sustainability in production and construction techniques in a unique environment.

The post Casas Calx was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The house is built at the highest point of Nikiana, in the east side of Lefkada on top of a green hill enjoying panoramic views over the nearby islands. The project involved the design of the indoor and outdoor spaces of a 200m² vacation home with a ready-built frame, outside walls and swimming pool.

The building is laid out in three levels and functions as a holiday rental during the summer months. The ground floor accommodates the living areas, including the kitchen and lounge, as well as one bedroom. The other two bedrooms are placed on the first floor, while the basement houses a small gym with wellness area, equipped with a steam bath.

The interior design was informed by the future use of the building as vacation rental, creating a warm, open, and clear space. The white color of the walls is combined with natural materials, like wood, bamboo, cane, and woven straw in all furniture and decorative elements.

The outdoor areas are modeled in the same fashion; here, space is organized in distinctive zones with outdoor lounges on many levels, following the terrain and keeping contact with the water features and the landscape. Landscaped strips are inserted in-between.

Revergo Architecture

The post Agapanthos was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.