A house for Ana
Situated at the very summit of a hill north of Madrid, with the sierra as a backdrop in the distance, a house for Ana. Once again, we are trying to build the loveliest house in the world.
Project Name: 2021 ROTONDA HOUSE, MADRID
Studio Name: Alberto Campo Baeza
And to capture that 360º panoramic landscape, we propose a belvedere at the top of the house where one feels in seventh heaven.
Supporting this belvedere, we will build a two-storey podium made of local Colmenar limestone, in which we will carve out the required openings for windows providing light and ventilation to the rooms.
Geometrically the structure is based on a 12×12 m square, divided into nine 4×4 m squares. Like an exercise from Durand’s “Précis des leçons d’Architecture”. With a certain Palladian flavor.
On the south-facing ground floor, a spacious living room, protected by a light veranda where vines and jasmines will grow. The floor plan will extend to a pool at the edge. On the north facade will be the main entrance to the house. Alongside it, the large kitchen and the dining room. In the centre of that floor, a 4×4 m square general hallway through which the staircase and the elevator will be accessed.
On the upper floor, the bedrooms at all four corners. Three identical bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, and a larger master bedroom with a dressing-room.
And supporting this construction in the steep topography of the hill will be a concrete podium, in a colour matching the stone, to house the garage, storage and service areas.
Alberto Campo Baeza
Born in Valladolid, he saw the Light in Cádiz.
He has been a Professor in the School of Architecture of Madrid, ETSAM 1986. He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne, as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Kansas State University, the CUA University in Washington, and the University at Buffalo. And in many other Schools of Architecture. In 2021 has been Professor at the NYIT.
His works have been widely recognized. From the houses Turégano, Gaspar, de Blas, Cala House or the Infinite House, to buildings like Caja Granada, the Offices in Zamora for the Regional Government of Castilla y León or the Sports Pavilion for the University Francisco de Vitoria, in Madrid. He has won the 1st Prize to build the new Lycée Français of Madrid.
He has exhibited his work in the Crown Hall IIT Chicago, the Urban Center New York, the Palladio Basilica in Vicenza, the Tempietto S. Pietro in Montorio and the MAXXI in Rome, the MA Gallery of Tokyo and the American Academy of Arts and Letters of New York.
He is a Full Member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain since 2014.
He was awarded the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters of New York, the Attolini Lack Medal of the Anahuac University of Mexico, the Piranesi Prix di Roma and the RIBA International Fellowship. He has been named Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects of New York. He has been awarded with the Gold Medal for Spanish Architecture and he has received the Spanish National Architecture Prize in 2021.
