Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

House B-V

This is a project by MAQLA-adiu and it is located at Benicàssim, Castellón, Spain. Project's program: Single family house. There are twenty four images for House B-V.

: © Emilio Llobat Guarino

Project details

Project name: House B-V
Location: Benicàssim, Castellón, Spain
Program: Single family house
Area: Built Area: 467.41 m2
Year: Completion: 2010
More details: Cost: 284,465 €
Client: Beatriz Díaz • Vicente Ordoñez
Project by: MAQLA-adiu
Team: Principal Designer: Emilio Llobat Guarino • Technical Surveyor: Pablo Sistero • Design Team: Beatriz Diaz, Pablo Sistero, José J. Domínguez, Carlos Zafont • Engineering: Alfonso Llobat Guarino • Draughtsman: Basilio López Zafón
Others: Contractor: Mipersan

Project images

Designer's statement

The house is situated in a coast location, at Benicàssim (Castellón), in Spain.

It is an isolated construction with its main elevation to East and an important open large garden area in front of this façade.

The project includes elements from the language and scale of typical single houses in spanish east; from the Mediterranean and white constructions in hot climates, in its tipology of building isolated and adapted to the program requested by the client.

It has been suggested that the simplicity, rationality and good functionality are the main criteria in this architectural design. This has supposed the construction of a house with a minimum adjusted cost, although it generous surface,

The building has an exterior finished with smooth texture and white flexible stucco-Cotegran Parex. This new no-lime material, has a technology that repels water, is breathable and does not need any cut. This material is possible to be applied in a thin layer of 3-4 mm; the base below is a low-cost material: a simple white colored mortar, Predurex, with very good resistance to retraction, flexible and waterproof. Then, we have got an excellent finishing and technical solution.

The holes for windows and doors have been solved with sliding wooden slats systems to control the sunlight.

Then, the façades are designed in two colors and textures: the white at stucco background and over it, the brown from the wood slats.

The dominant white reflects simplicity and luminosity and the natural light makes different tonalities, shades and effects in all elevations.

The dynamism of the wood sliding systems allows create different views of the façade from the same point of view, whether closed or open, showing, in this last case, when life is inside the house. The composition of the east façade (main) defines three flights of lines that reinforce the horizontal dominance aspect of this view and reflects the number of indoor levels above ground, corresponding to two levels at ground floor and another one at first floor.

The steel columns have been left as seen through an oxide paint treatment.

The roof is flat and the raining water goes towards inside, so that the slabs at fly are still with minimum thickness and water drainage will not create stains on the white façade. Sealing is achieved with a lower cost solution in front of traditional roofs, applying a mortar waterproof base covered with a waterproofing paint armed with non-woven geotextile.

The owners, a young couple with children wished the full day-and-night program on the same floor, so that the family would be close in space.

Also had to provide some areas for recreational use and work, separated, on other floors of the house.

So, it was planned a ground floor with all living program. The underground and first floors were for different uses.

As the natural terrain was below from the street level, we took advantage of it and, with very little excavation, made an underground floor and used the surplus lands to fill the rest of the parcel with optimal cost.

The underground floor contains a two-car garage. It also has an art workspace, for painting and sculpture, which fills the artistic needs of the owner.

The walls and floor coverings have been treated in a more industrial way, as built and low cost: concrete flooring is finished with a paint resin and concrete walls are seen, with transparent protection paint.

The ground floor is distributed with a kitchen, guest toilet, living-room, with a restricted zone that contains the private (night) area, two bedrooms with shared bathroom and master bedroom with bathroom. This plant is on two levels to differentiate the living room and covered terrace from the other uses, getting more height in these parts.

The first floor has a room ready for recreation and games, multipurpose, supplemented by an auxiliary bedroom and bathroom for potential guests.

The materials used in interiors are simple and cost-adjusted, using laminate flooring, walls and roofs resolved with plasterboard and painted.