Located on the Quezaltepec volcano, this project has an extraordinary view of San Salvador city. The sloping topography defines the design of this young couple’s home, creating a house completely integrated to the surrounding landscape.
Studio Name: Atelier CS Arquitectos
Website: https://atelierinversiones.com/
Design Team: Diego Velásquez, Afshin Eighani, Carlos Peña Esperanza
Area: 400 m2, including garage area and rooftop
Stage: Under Construction
Year: Design 2021, Construction 2022-2023
Location: El Boquerón, San Salvador, El Salvador.
Consultants:
Structural & Hidraulical Design: Vásquez Molina Ingenieros
The main design criteria were to enhance the city views by framing them from the inside out. Creating frames in most of the spaces became a very simple, functional, and visually attractive solution for more welcoming interiors.
The greatest design challenge was adapting the modules of the house onto the sloping terrain and keeping the existing vegetation. Hence, the best way to adapt the model was dividing it into two modules, one for each level, to keep them blended with the context.
To make this house look like it is emerging alongside the plants and trees and look completely embedded into the mountain, a lush vegetation covering was a must. It was achieved by placing it in a strategic position, to reduce the earthworks, along with landscape design on some of the green slabs, hanging plants all over the perimeter and integrating a massive existing tree next to the garage.
The house receives the visitors in the front porch with an open reception corridor leading to a green slab that will be used as an outdoor painting area directly connected to the indoor painting studio that is separated from the rest of the house, to assure the best conditions for the artist’s concentration.
The social area is an open space including the kitchen, dining and living room. Next to the living room is a terrace that can transform, if needed, into a great social indoor-outdoor open space.
Downstairs is the private area, this area welcomes the users to the family room and the home office, separated only by a decorative partition. The whole floor has its own balcony facing the garden.
In the upper level there is a skylight that enlightens the social space, being the entrance door to the rooftop. This rooftop is an additional social area separated from the rest of the house. At night it becomes an outpost towards the city lights and stargazing.
Studio Profile:
Atelier CS Arquitectos is a consulting firm, based in El Salvador, Central America.
Established by a duo of architects, Afshin Eighani & Carlos Peña Esperanza in 2013, focused on real estate planning and consultancy, specialized in architecture, interior design, and urban landscaping.
For the studio, a good and sustainable project must be worked in an integral way from different specialties, through a collaborative approach, considering its social context, history, and landscape. Nature is the fundamental pillar for the user´s well-being.
For Atelier CS Arquitectos, creating spaces that provide wellbeing is to integrate all the elements to achieve sustainable and timeless projects, looking for a perfect balance between architecture and the surrounding environment.
