León Duval — Spatial Possibilities

The Cloister House proposes to bring together, in its design and in its onsite location strategy, both geographical and functional factors, as well as intimate and personal variables coming from the individuals that commissioned the project. The design of the house begins with the idea of creating a shuttered patio, and thus reinterpreting the desired image of the classical ecclesiastical cloister through its design. Working with the concept of the patio, and from there with the image of the cloister, comes from the imaginaries raised in the many conversations organised with the clients, but also from the firm's own research about playable and educational scapes inscribed in spaces such as patios, playgrounds and gardens. 

In this line, the patio operates not only as a typological but also as a virtuous space and motor for the development of life inside the site of the house, both individually and collectively, and familiar and social. It is used to articulate the different uses and spaces of the home, communicating and connecting areas and voids within its three stories and throughout the property. This is proposed due to a centrifugal transparency originating from the inner patio towards the property borders. Contrasting from the outside an upper, neutral, and dark volume with a fragmented, lighter, and more permeable lower level, only delimited by a large main concrete wall that divides the home from the public space.

The house is designed on the plan views as a perfect square, with a demarcated circulation on the interior perimeter towards the central patio. Then, the main volume opens circa the interior and to the family patio, maintaining, however, an hermetic and neutral façade to the public exterior. This volume, which configures the central patio, is proposed to be slightly suspended above the ground with respect to the street level and connected by a suspended bridge. Which, in turn, presents a significant difference in level that allows the development of a lower and more protected flat. Thus, the house is proposed with two habitable levels, where the street level, as an independent space, brings together all the social functions, as well as the master bedroom and the guest room. Leaving on the ground and garden level all the family bedrooms, connections to the garden, patios, and parking lots. Below the common space at the ground level is deployed the underground level, with storage spaces, study spaces and gathering and play areas. 

On the other hand, the house was designed to allow its size to increase while ensuring its image and façades. It was originally proposed to be built on half of its ending size, about 200 square metres, which considerably increased up to 400 square metres only considering what was planned. Then, the concrete structure of the street level, designed as a bridge to delimit the inner patio while allowing free circulation about it, produced the available space to house the required rooms and new habitable spaces originated under the process of construction.