Q House in Northern Spain by Asensio-Mah

February 26, 2010 Category: House, Residential

The Q House is located in Northern Spain and was designed by architects Asensio-Mah. The house design is a conscious exercise in developing an alternative domestic environment to the surrounding villas of the suburban neighborhood. The solutions for the development so far have typically been compact villas located on abruptly leveled gardens, irrespective of the complex topographical condition of their sites. The architects’ ambition for producing an alternative domestic atmosphere is developed by constructing a more explicit relationship between the home design and garden with the existing conditions of the steep site.

The organisational strategy for the house design sought to register the difference in topography within the parcel by organising a series of terraces that configure the framework for a landscape with differentiated characters. This deliberate geometric configuration affords multiple readings of the outline of the home design while facilitating a rich experiential lifestyle within its volume and landscape. Specific organisational and material strategies were developed to produce different volumetric and perceptual readings that change with the different vantage points towards and within the house design.

The architectural building is organised in three bands that are arranged around a central circulation core. These three bands maintain a prevailing orientation in the northeast-southwest direction to secure maximum daylight in every room of home interior design. While the bands configure and organise the different rooms, the circulation core underpins a switchback pattern of shifting orientations with the gradual vertical movement through the home design.

The house design is clad in dark ‘composite’ panels that have been customised with digital fabrication techniques. These customised panels are used to articulate sections of the house volume in order to introduce legibility to the overall form. These panels offer a range of different surface consistencies and patterns to the house that reflect the sites changing light conditions in multiple ways, producing an ever changing range of texture and tones.

Q House by Asensio Mah in Northern Spain