Project: Marble House
Architects: OON Architecture
Location: Tigre, Argentina
Area: 5,597 sf
Photographs by: Alejandro Peral
Marble House by OON Architecture
Designed by OON Architecture, the Marble House represents a luxurious entity in the El Golf of Nordelta neighborhood in Tigre, Argentina. With just under 5,600 square feet of living spaces, this luxurious abode has been designed as a combination of three programmatic volumes each one with a distinct function such as a social, private and a service area. Additionally, the futuristic structure is complemented by a sleek landscape design.
Marble House is located in the neighborhood El Golf of Nordelta and its background has continuity with a golf course that ensures a total visual opening to the surrounding landscape. Naturally the most obvious information to take into account is the one offered by the terrain: orientation, visuals, access and context. But in this case the formal exploration and the search of new forms determine the center of the project. The idea of the house and the response to these conditions join and finally converge in a balanced way as a translation of our architectural thought. The search of an own language is based on the use of clear volumes supported one on another. Pure forms with the possibility of being slid, worked and emptied, result in places to be inhabited.
At first glance three clear compositional pieces stand out, these correspond to each of the programmatic volumes of the house, stand out: Social area – Private area – Service area. The programmatic differentiation is given, this time, volumetrically and not through materials, since the travertine marble was used as the only covering and as an integrating element of the project. Large plates of travertine invade the envelope of the house, causing it to become practically a monolithic element. Its termination is uneven and grooved, the tonal variations along its veins and its imperfections not only give warmth to the pure lines of the house, but also gives its name. The building appear without openings, or cuts, and some of their faces dematerialize with large glazed panels, keeping the continuity of slabs and walls to generate the envelope.
The main volume floats on the upper floor and rests on two others on the ground floor that move one towards the front and one towards the side. This volume contains the main suite facing the golf course, and two more suites facing the front. The lower ones slide in such a way that the upper volume floats towards the front generating the semi-covered access, and towards the quiet part of the building creating a large gallery stripped of supports. The blindest volume that grows towards the front contains the service and detaches itself from the ground with a large bracket that grows diagonally and shows the garage. A “tongue” that floats on a water mirror delimited by the access area receives us in front of the house. Upon entering, a double height slit is generated in the meeting between the volumes that are the centerpiece of the house and contains the vertical core that links the floors. Furthermore, every interior floor is transformed into outdoor, allowing an immediate relationship with the pool that colonizes the outdoor and links the house with the garden. The flexibility of the volumes allows the presence of inclined planes and diagonal cuts that enhance the volume and through overhangs filter direct sunlight where it is needed.
