Natural stone is an eternal material
Now in its 59th edition, Marmomac returns to Verona from September 23 to 26 to showcase the role of stone in contemporary design.
Eduardo Cadaval and Clara Solà-Morales determined a unique form for the house as the result of a research process that sought to solve a series of formal and conceptual issues. By defining an X-shaped volume, the architects seek to address how to protect and give protagonism to an impressive pine, that is located on the top of the site, and that makes access and approximation to the house extremely complex from the street; how to avoid deciding between the views to the sea and those to the mountains, and allow both visions in opposite directions; how to neutralize through form the presence of the contiguous constructions, to build up a fake isolation that denies the neighbours; how to double the main views, permitting quality frontal views from the front and the rear of the house; and finally, how to resolve so many a priories with a simple movement that answers to all of the previous aims without prioritizing nor explicitly formulating a response to any of them.
Divided in two floors, the house incorporates a garage, the access to the house, and a private suite for the owners in the top floor. The lower floor harbours both an open front, with a living area and a kitchen/dining room of generous dimensions, and a closed rear space, where services and rooms are located. These spaces are given, through a series of patios, direct ot protected views of the surroundings.
The X House seeks to provide spaces of different nature with an individual character, and always incorporates the surroundings as a main protagonist. "Learning from Dan Graham's reflections," the architects remark, "the image of the sea is always present when observing the mountain, and the mountain appears as a reflection." when looking at the sea: a perceptive quality that enriches the experience of the house
Architects: Eduardo Cadaval & Clara Solà-Morales
Collaborators: Bruno Pereira, Pamela Diaz De Leon, Daniela Tramontozzi, Manuel Tojal
Building Engineering: Joaquin Pelaez
Structural Engineering: Carles Gelpi
Construction Company: TOPCRET Constructions
Location: Cabrils, Barcelona, España
Area: 300 mq
Completion: 2012
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Marble matters– exploring Carrara’s legacy
Sixteen young international architects took part in two intensive training days in Carrara, organized by FUM Academy and YACademy, featuring visits to the marble quarries and a design workshop focused on the use of the material.