“House C” was designed by architect Santiago Parramón of RTA Office, and its exterior is clad in slabs of basalt. The residence curls around the site through two storeys and a basement level, and the closed outer face of the building gives way to glazing round the inner courtyard which contains a pool and lawn. The architects describe the house as: “… space within a solid object, a block of black basalt in which we make a number of penetrations as in a quarry, mine tunnels and corridors that communicate with the outside, with the light of the morning, of noon and the darkness of the night. The complexity of the site works in our favour: the closed outer perimeter, walled, stony; inside the glass folds open. We traverse the wall. It’s the north face of the building and there we place the access: a spectacle of natural light, reflections, transparencies, an explosion of multiplying images. A kaleidoscopic space, beauty, image, observation. Everything at the same time thanks to the effects produced by the transparent crystals of different sizes and angles. Everything impacts on the building. Nature enters the interior through these cuts and segments the different rooms of the house.”
You can see more photos of the house, as well as read more of the interview at Dezeen. You can also visit the architect’s website at RTA Office.
