Through a slowly developing dark ramp, a young Jacaranda tree bathes in sunlight. Bamboo and ferns disguise the boundaries of the plot, and in it, a continuous concrete core is born in the foundations and rises three levels. Floating slabs wrapped in glass extend from the core.
Spaces open and merge with the gardens that surround them, blurring the line between interior and exterior.
Project Name: Casa Erasto
Architect Name: Vertebral
A house where every detail was designed. A residence that ages with dignity like the weeping willow that rests by the water, embracing the passage of time.
The path to the ground level floor begins the process of entering an urban house amongst nature. The ground floor allocates the public program of the residence.
It opens completely and brings the garden into the library, the living room, and the kitchen. A continuous slab with no interruptions except for one. A concrete core that pierces upwards and grows through the levels above. The two upper floors are bedrooms that peek out to the treetops. The roof carries a garden that serves as an observatory and contemplative area partly shaded by a wooden pergola.
When seen from above, the dwelling is perceived as an uninterrupted vegetated plot that stands out from its urban context.
A house that constantly reveals how it was built by letting the structure and the installations remain visible. The core is the house itself. It contains all the installations, the stairs and the most intimate areas of the house.
The rest of the indoor spaces are glass surrounded terraces that emerge and float from the core. These terraces are 9×14 m slabs that extend from the vertical structure allowing continuous horizontal planes with double axis cantilevers. All frames are made from raw steel and glass. These elements repeat every 88 cm generating a rhythm that gives a sense of verticality to the space. Simultaneously, this makes the house more flexible allowing the user to locally control its porosity.
A house that redefines the idea of luxury. Luxury in 21st century cities means having access to tranquility, to a vegetated landscape, and feeling greatness in compact and efficient spaces that open long views towards nature. Sunlight shines on a hummingbird that is drinking from a jasmine leaf whose scent enters with the breeze into the living room. Simultaneously, the sound of moving water. A parenthesis in a rushing city.
