Project: House in Somoboo
Architects: Eduardo Fdez.-Abascal Teira + Florentina Muruzábal Sitges
Location: Marina De Cudeyo, Spain
Area: 7,427 sf
Photographs by: Courtesy of the architects
House in Somoboo by Eduardo Fdez + Florentina Muruzábal Sitges in Spain
The House in Somoboo, located in Marina De Cudeyo, Spain, is a stunning hillside residence that looks out over the “Cubas” estuary. The design emerged naturally during the first visit to the site with the owner, where the architects focused on the southern view and creating a well-oriented garden. The house features two wings arranged at different heights to adjust to the slope, with day and night areas designated to each wing.
The overlapping volumes and cantilever roofs create a unique shape, and the use of materials such as treated concrete, oak lattices, and glass give the house a lightness and elegance.
The house is located in a housing estate, which lies on the other side of the Santander bay. It lies on a hillside which looks upon “Cubas” estuary. One enters the plot from a road which runs along the lower limit of the plot, parallel to the contour lines of the slope. It coincides with the good orientation and the sights.
Whereas some designs have a complex development with drawings of different alternatives, this one happened in a very natural way, after the first visit to the place with the owner, during a late summer sunset.
First sketches insist on how to land the house on the plot so as to enjoy the beautiful sights to the south, with the estuary in the first term and the mountains in the distance, and also, on how to achieve a well orientated garden.
The organization of the house results from these conditions and the adoption of the known L-shape floorplan. Day areas and night areas were assigned to each wing, with the peculiarity of arranging each wing at a different height which allows for a better adjustment to the slope.The topography makes it possible for both volumes to have a half-buried floor for complementary uses with openings to the south which look either directly or across an English courtyard. This solution obtains a large surface, which the owners demanded, with a reduced impact.
The relationship between the overlapping volumes and their contact with the ground define the shape of the house. The projectings of both pieces increase the plasticity. The elevations translate the interior organization considering the orientation, the sights and the constructive systems.
The interior spaces enjoy the light and the natural environment. The cantilever roofs project proudly, stretching the limits of the house and transforming the landscape into new open rooms for the house.
The choice of the materials for the exterior, treated concretes, aluminum coating, oak lattices, and glass help to materialize the proposal, emphasizing the lightness of the upper volume, which seems to be floating. The interiors are solved by conventional materials, white limestone, oak and rubber pavements…
The elegant choice of the furniture, with diverse pieces of Ch. Perriand, J. Prouvé, S. Mouille … and the plastic works of Or. Elliasson, S. Lewitt, Y.Nara and J. Uslé, help to characterize the house and facilitate a comfortable life.
