Concrete And Stone Country House Design Raised & Embedded Into The Mountain

The owners of CASA BI wanted to have a country house in Tierra Caliente, not far from Bogotá, their city of residence. The project is located inside a private club, on the outskirts of the town of Anapoima. This area is characterized by having tropical climatic features: abundant rainfall, high temperatures and exuberant fauna and flora.
The project is implanted in a corner lot with a triangular shape. The contour lines extend in the same direction as the lower edge of the lot, and ascend towards the opposite corner. The house extends on the same axis, parallel to the contour lines and perpendicular to the path of the sun. In this way, both the social area and the rooms open onto the best view without directly receiving the sun's rays. On its side, the pool also extends in the east-west direction seeking to receive sun throughout the day. The house was implanted in such a way that the pool was aligned with a large Saman tree.
The design takes advantage of the slope of the lot. The house is raised and embedded in the mountain. In this way, a contrast is generated between the spaces collected by the topography and architecture in the front part of the house and the platforms and balconies in the back part of the house that dominate the landscape by being in relation to the treetops. In order to obtain a greater cleanliness in the architectural composition and more open spaces, the inclination of the lot also allowed locating service spaces on a lower floor.
A large stone wall is the main element of the house, it is the link, the pivot, between the social area and the rooms. The wall is taller and longer than the whole house. It always maintains its height, but as the house levels drop along with the ground level, the wall gets higher. The main function of this element is to balance the composition of the house by setting two different atmospheres on each side. Two zones are clearly outlined in the house, the room zone and the social zone.
The materiality of the house is deliberately restricted. Respecting the regulations of the club, the external finish of the volumes is plastered and painted with a Cypress green that matches the different shades of green of the abundant vegetation. Said green surrounds elements such as beams, columns and walls so as not to deprive them of their integrity. Every time there is a change of tone or material, a dilation appears. The floor is an 80x80cm Spanish limestone that was laid out respecting the sense of its discreet but elegant veining. In this way, the aim was to make the space feel restful and fluid. In addition, thanks to its light tone and its slight porosity, the floor always stays fresh.
Contrasting with Cypress green, black is a tone that is present throughout the project. On the one hand, the pool is clad in large pieces of black stone and its joints are also grouted in black. The aim was for the pool to look like a large solid element pierced. During the day, it casts a beautiful petrol blue color and, at night, it looks like a perfect mirror, reflecting even the finest details of the Saman.
Project name: Casa B.I.
Architects: Lorenzo Botero Arquitectos - www.lorenzobote...
Location: Mesa de Yeguas, Anapoima, Colombia
Area: 450 m²
Year: 2018
Photographer: Simon Bosch Photography - simonbosch.nl/
Lead Architects: Emília Bagesteiro Riegel, Nivia Vittore
Ambiment - The Ambient by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
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