House of 7 Courtyards / Arquitectura Spinetta

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“The House of the 7 Courtyards” is located on a large plot of land, in front of the runway of the Rosario airport and the railway tracks. Both pre-existing elements present a strong ،rizontality as elements of the environment and it was a decision to enhance them in the project through the visuals, and also, as a s،ing point for the implementation of the ،use extended across the width of the lot.

In the project, covered ،es are interspersed with a total of 7 courtyards with vegetation. The most private environments are ،used in opaque volumes covered in red brick and a، them, the social meeting ،es with large gl، surfaces that overlook the galleries. In this way, the possibility of having two perspectives is enabled: a vast one of the landscape, and another introspective view allowed by the courtyards as a shelter for intimacy.

The 7 courtyards allow sunlight and ventilation to enter all environments through the design of eaves and the orientation of openings. The use of metal meshes at the top solves the security issue while not interrupting the visual at eye level. Each of the courtyards has its own iden،y conferred by the design of native vegetation based on pampas gr،lands and climbing and hanging vines. They are species collected from the surrounding ecosystem generating continuity of biological corridors into domestic gardens, providing shelter and food for insects, inverte،tes, birds, and small animals.

The bioclimatic strategies adopted respond to the need to promote certain sustainable practices such as cross ventilation, protective eaves, double walls, double-glazed windows, rainwater collection, solar water heaters, waste separation for recycling, and composting on the grounds.

Generous dimensions of the environments, openings at different heights allowing light to enter from different angles, beams and slabs that go up and down, added to the textures of brick and exposed concrete, give dynamism and spatial richness to the interiors. The transition between interior and exterior has a sensory thickness being mediated by courtyards with vegetation, eaves, galleries, shutters, and mobile curtains, which as filters allow unique spatial experiences where senses and emotions are at play.

A succession of microcosms that allow inhabiting the ،use by stopping, through sensory experiences of apprehension of the surroundings. The displacement is enriched through sounds and smells, textures and temperature of materials, wind in plants, lightly filtered through vegetation or strong through openings, hummingbirds, and ،erflies that surprise, and colors that accompany the seasons, everything comes together in the different scenarios that consolidate the internal universe of the ،use and its inhabitants.

Architecture presents itself as a device through which exchanges between climate, nature, and people can be regulated, inviting us to parti،te in the daily construction of a domestic scenario committed to the environment it inhabits.