CASA VERTICAL is located in a residential area on the northern outskirts of the municipality of Algemesí. The urban area where it is located is bordering agricultural land with predominantly citrus crops.

The house has access from two streets, and is developed in the part closest to the rutic plots, which gives it long views of the orange groves on all its floors in the north orientation.

PROGRAMME

It is a four-storey house, one of which is underground and contains the basement programme, from which the remaining three floors are built above ground. Through the north road is the road access that has a covered outdoor parking space and allows access to the basement through a landscaped ramp.

In the basement there is a large car park with capacity for four vehicles linked to technical rooms. Through this leads to the leisure programme of the house by means of a lobby with a lift that connects all the living floors. The floor is organised with a multi-purpose room with natural lighting thanks to the horizontal tear in the east façade. This room integrates a unique Bulthaup kitchen, allowing the space to be used for different purposes. On the west side, the rooms open onto an English courtyard with longitudinal proportion that gives access to spaces such as the gymnasium, a guest bedroom and a bathroom. The Gymnasium is illuminated through the English courtyard and the underwater glass of the outdoor swimming pool. It is also equipped with a music ambience that will be controlled from the dj room located on the north side. Finally, a glazed wine cellar located in the entrance hall of the floor will lead to the staircase that vertebrates the whole house.

Continuing with the route on the ground floor, a triple-height hallway is organised that gives a glimpse of the singularity of the staircase on all its floors. This is accessed from the outside by pedestrian access through a covered porch. From the entrance hall there is access to a very large open space comprising a kitchen and dining room on one side and a living room with a reading room on the other. All of them with their own porch which are connected to the outdoor terrace, the swimming pool and barbecue area. The interior of the day block is complemented by a study near the entrance and a guest toilet.

The upper levels have the more private use programme, where the night area is located. In the east block is the master bedroom, whose access leads to an interior courtyard that naturally illuminates the bathroom and the main dressing room. This dressing room separated by sexes and with a large capacity designed by the Rimadesio brand screens and connects with the master bedroom whose views open to the south. On the opposite side of this block and as a servant’s quarters, there is a laundry room with an outdoor terrace. In the west block there are two single bedrooms, each of them equipped with their own bathrooms.

Finally, the upper floor has another multi-purpose room for more private use with a dual outdoor space. This room opens onto two terraces, one facing south with views of the landscaped grounds of the plot and the other facing north with views of the extensive citrus groves.

CONCEPT

The house emerges with two rounded volumes from the garden plane, becoming two prisms of different dimensions and heights that are attached to each other, displaced in line with the directionality of the plot.

These two blocks are offset from each other with the intention of creating different outdoor areas and improving the relationship of these spaces with the interior. This operation generates independent interior spaces for different uses but without losing the continuity between them.

The staircase is a singular part of the dwelling that is materialised with a broken slab of prefabricated concrete that connects all the floors. It is located in the axis of the union of the two volumes that form the dwelling. Located in the core of the building, it is shown in its full development, communicating the four levels thanks to the triple height that starts from the ground floor entrance hall.

The use of plain white concrete in its envelope enhances its rotundity. The prismatic volumes are modelled by creating very closed façade planes in the longitudinal direction. These planes are subtly opened to the exterior by means of vertical slat-like slits. This gesture gives the house a double function: on the one hand, greater privacy with the adjoining plot and the adjacent roads, while at the same time it becomes an element that filters the light and wind. In the transversal sense, in the elevation facing the access road, it is treated in the same way.

However, on the elevation that overlooks the exterior garden, two blocks are left open at each end, generating large glazed openings that allow the interior spaces to merge with the exterior. As an extension of the geometry, both pieces at their ends are resolved with covered outdoor spaces. On the one hand, the elevation facing the road allows covered access to the house and creates a protected outdoor parking space, and on the other hand, in the main use areas, it serves the kitchen and living room respectively.

The horizontal plane is resolved by means of large-format Carrara marble paving that dresses the exterior spaces and blends in with the vertical concrete walls. The large windows flush with the floor draw a fine line that separates and limits the change of material between the interior and the exterior. The interior has spaces paved in natural wood that give it greater warmth and comfort.
A warm and welcoming house is achieved by cladding the walls that form the core of the house with grooved natural oak wood panels.

The interior of the house is conceived as a space that flows and connects the rooms in a very natural way, being able to create semi-independent spaces thanks to the large sliding doors that give a richness and dynamism to a changing and versatile space.

The interior lighting is designed by combining indirect lighting, spotlights with a focused beam and integrated point luminaires. All of them allow different atmospheres to be created in the interior. The house has a domotic installation with control of all the electrical and audiovisual elements.
Outside, the landscaped spaces with natural grass surround the entire plot, even the use of pavicesped allows the garden to be read as a garden in areas with road traffic. Pedestrian circulation takes place on large slabs of Carrara marble. The vegetation in these spaces is materialised with palms that dress up the surroundings and enhance the verticality of the construction.

A fence is planned for the street, in coherence with the rest of the project, using vertical metal slats that follow the same idea of verticality and giving priority to privacy.
In short, based on function, the result is a construction of great formal power, with material and geometric purity that is materialised thanks to the use of white concrete and natural light.

It is therefore an architecture with a clear and simple minimalist language. Where the vertical component prevails in the model and the volumes are recognised for their pure formalism and constructive sincerity.