TRAMA BOOK
ECUADORIAN ARCHITECTURE 015-021
TREE HOUSE
By: María Alicia Becdach, architect.
Location:
One of the main design factors of this house is to integrate the large garden with the house, allowing the trees to visually penetrate through the glasswork and enabling the projection of the butterfly roofs to admire the trunks and crowns of the trees.
Although the house has large windows, the shade of the trees protects it from the sun, fills it with greenery and freshness, thus becoming the main element of its facades.
The materiality consists of rustic brick blocks over 30 years old, which, having been stored for so long, have acquired imperfections and distinct nuances that lend a timeless character to a new house. The brick and the old trees continue to tell the story of the house that always longed to be built there. The house's metal structure softens the rusticity of the clay, responding to contemporary construction practicality and efficiency. This allows for spatial freedom on the horizontal planes and spaciousness in the vertical spaces. Its black color contrasts with the clay and the wood of the ceilings.
The open-plan entrance level integrates the kitchen with a porch that frames the garden; a lattice of vertical wooden elements creates a more welcoming atmosphere and produces a play of shadows. The social area becomes a glass cube surrounded by gardens and varying levels.
The overlap of the roofs creates an opening that allows cross ventilation at the top; this air pressure on the openings produces a suction of the interior air, thus achieving the Venturi effect.
This house with overlapping butterfly roofs is binuclear. It consists of two distinct zones: one for social activities, developed on the ground floor with a double-height ceiling, and the other on two floors for private activities such as bedrooms and servants' quarters, connected by a vestibule and stairs that, along their route, become a gallery towards the stables of the neighboring property.
The upper floor is compact, and its rising roofs with their windows create a floating effect above the treetops. The children of this house live in their own treehouse.