CasaChris

Single-family house

381,46 m²

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Tenerife, ES

#newconstruction #house

2016

Built

José Ramón Oller

This project addresses an excess of servitude derived from the demanding topography and strict regulations through a straightforward strategy: a compact, clean, and tidy body overlooking the Atlantic’s rising face and enjoying a panoramic view of the Anaga Mountains to the west. It is a simple-volume step section that tries to sit naturally on the terraced slope.

Located on top of a hill, in a residential area accessible by car, the house begins in the garage. We value entrance rituals, the importance of the short journeys linking different levels. Passing a stout stamped concrete wall bore through with an expansive expanded metal door, we access the house through a humid, Tropics-inspired garden. From this place we ascend to the top floor through a welcoming walk. A stretched-out ramp, the underlying basalt rock, wet verdure, and expanding overhead light are some of the elements surrounding us. Above, architecture imparts a luminous reading: white surfaces, woodwork, Carrara marble, and concrete.

Rainwater pours over natural stone in the patio, slipping into the interior through a crack in the paving. Sunlight is let in through mulberry latticework. Bench-railings segregate the lines of vision, opening up the blue horizon. At the end of the journey, the top-level terrace – protected by an overhang that provides generous shade – forms a balcony above a garden of euphorbias (cardones, tabaibas) and Barbary figs, and becomes an aspect of the local landscape.