Muro Studio: This particular urban house of 140m² is located in a small street passage called “la blanqueada”, in a residential area of Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires City. Its name comes not only from the passage where it’s located but also from the color of its walls -blanqueada means whitened-. La Blanqueada was born as a complex project, the original house was found in very bad condition, counting with only certain elements to preserve. In addition, being the lot right before the corner and of a bare surface of 8,66m x 12,70m, the darkness was complete.
Because of its height and warmth, the antique brick vault turned into the main element to preserve. The house spaces were disposed to highlight this element, which was accurately defined to be the public and reunion area. At this Pont, the main premise of design became the dialog between the modern and the old, keeping part of the history of the house and generating new special stories. The original house only had a small front yard as an expansion and daylight source. As a result, all the interiors were very dark. The new project extended this yard several meters, occupying almost the total length of the lot. The house was turned into an L shape, and the new empty space allowed the green to emerge, an urban pool, and an outdoor dining room.
All the rooms of the house are orientated to the Northeast, opening to the new open space and taking advantage of the entrance of daylight. The boundaries of the ground floor are diffuse due to the continuous glass carpentries, generating a complete indoor-outdoor integration, and recreating a bigger space. A wooden cube at the bottom of the house solves the service area: kitchen, toilet, and cleaning. Together with an integrated bar. While going up the stairs, a new urban-scale patio appears, bringing light and green to the circulation area. A spiral staircase in this patio takes you to the terrace, the third and last expansion of the house. Given the small scale of the neighborhood, it counts with large views of the city.
Metal white panels -beyond acting as a security fence- form a continuous mesh that integrates the different first-floor programs in the facade. While opening or closing them, a ludic dynamism is generated and the house mutates. The renovation of “La Blanqueada” turned a dark compact house into a house full of different effects of lights and shadows, materials, patios, and heights. These interventions brought dynamism to the family´s daily living and generated a great variety of special situations that mold the use of every room.
