Casa Tango project, first of all required a thorough study of the volumetric positioning of the building, to ensure that the house enjoys good views, a suitable orientation and, at the same time, does not impair the view of neighbouring houses. This led us to an intense task of prior geometry of the house to achieve three objectives: the best possible views, thermal gain in winter and shadows that cool in summer.
The plot had undergone modifications prior to our intervention. Our first decision was to return the plot to a state closest to the original, in order to work on a real landscape. For us, it is essential to integrate the constructions into the landscapes in which they are located.
In the case of mountainous terrain, we believe that the house should rest on the mountain. The landscape welcomes the house, not the other way around. All floors of the house have contact with the terrain and from any of them it is possible to access the plot thanks to the staggered system we have chosen.
The programme responds to the scenarios proposed by the client: a house inhabited by two people for some months and by almost ten people for other months. In this way, the layout allows all the inhabitants to have private spaces in each of these two situations.
The house has a façade whose main construction material is stone on the level that forms its base, stone extracted from the same excavation carried out for the construction of the house. A way of integrating the building into the surrounding environment and reducing the ecological footprint and the impact of the construction. Stone combined with Venetian stucco, which gives the house a character of its own, mixing tradition and modernity, as well as wood and aluminium with a reproduction of wrought iron.
Inside, it has an interior courtyard on the north side (the mountain), which facilitates cross ventilation, and with a double-height window and a spiral staircase. The staircase is designed as a sculpture or icon, which works as a vertebral axis linking the two floors providing natural light to the floor below.
In terms of energy efficiency, the house has a canadian wells system that allows the entry of cold air in summer without using air conditioning and warm air in winter. As far as water is concerned, the house reuses domestic water - grey and black - which, once filtered, is used for the toilets and for the drip irrigation system.
Casa Tango, a way of building architecture on the landscape and not against it.