The basic idea for the project was sought in the personal history of the future inhabitants of the house. From the beginning they demanded a ground floor as open and unobstructed as possible. Thus the house would “float” over an outer space where they could in the summer live almost completely in the open air. The family that will inhabit this house wants to retain the spirit of what has been their main summer activity for years: camping.
This suggestion conditioned all decisions in the project. I looked for greater lightness and structural spans making the house appear on top of this open ground floor almost like an autonomous box, compact and mobile-like. It would capture this on-the-road spirit of its owners.
The main storey is a regular compact parallelepiped, in which rooms are laid out opening progressively to the sea: from service rooms to the Northwest to the terrace area in the Southeast corner. The living room and three bedrooms draw an “L” sheltering the terrace and open generously to the best views and sunlight.
The terrace is separated from the bedrooms, providing them with greater privacy. The resulting void allows the natural light to reach the centre of the lower storey. This void is covered in an upper level, protecting the bedrooms from the summer sun. Two more bedrooms on the top level complete the required program.
Seen from the road, the building is totally opaque. Only a glass slot, in the space between the lower beams, lets the sea show under the house.
The project has totally relied on modular and industrial construction. The whole framing is of steel: H-section profile for columns in the ground floor and square hollow sections for columns in the upper floors; I-beams and composite metal decking for floors. The large spans in the ground floor take advantage of the upper cross bracing. Diagonal elements inside the walls help to reduce the bending of the large beams.
The building envelope is also partly industrial. In the façade to the sea of the main floor, an aluminium frame holds at the same time the sliding aluminium windows, the louvers and window sills (for further details see Terrados, 1998).