Carpe Diem #1238 Crossed House (Manuel Clavel Rojo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In this month of modern art inspired themes at CDHK I have today another wonderful piece of architecture, but first this: I have already started with the preparations of our upcoming month of Carpe Diem. September will be an awesome month I think and that month I have chosen to make it myself a little bit easier. How? Let me tell you. Maybe you remember our special feature Carpe Diem Imagination in which I shared images for your inspiration and sometimes I told you a little about the image. Next month I will create a whole month with Carpe Diem Imagination episodes ... so I am already gathering images to use. I think September will be an awesome month too.

Okay ... back to our episode of today. Today I have a very special piece of modern architecture. This piece of architecture you can find in Murcia Spain and it is created by Manuel Clavel Rojo architects. It's the so called "Crossed House". The crossed house has two floors, and it seems that both parts can move separately from each other ... and maybe it's really "moveable", but I couldn't find information about that. The architects choose for this "form", because than the house could catch the most of the sunlight and the wonderful views of the landscape around it.

Crossed House

Let me tell you a little bit more about this modern art architecture:

On a site in the higher part of a residential zone in the environs of Murcia is located the singular, crossed house with views to the adjacent mountains, the "Sierra de la Pila" and "Valle del Ricote". From the ambiguity, being on a site of a future densely built-up area and at the same time enjoying today’s unsurpassable views, was born the idea of the project: to orientate the lower level of the house to the garden's intimacy and grant to the user at the superior level the delight of its views considering future edification and the influence of solar radiation.

This conceptual setup is materialized by a geometrical operation, the rotation of two elements, as if it were two construction toy blocks that are stacked and handled easily. The stacked oblong volumes, of a length of 20m and a depth of about 5m, are rotated by 35 degrees so that the extremes orientate to the most favored views and generate at the same time cantilevers of about 10m length.

These cantilevers, together with the rotation between both volumes, provide the necessary sun protection of the facade and pool residence.

The expressive power of this formal configuration, very elementary in principle, is further enhanced by a subtle distinction between the two volumes: the edges are rounded according to the orientation of the main openings of each level reinforcing this way the autonomous nature of the volumes. Thus, on the ground floor rounded transversal edges frame the big opening to the southeast, upstairs such treatment is applied to the longitudinal edges framing the views of the rooms at each end of the volume. This also apparently reduces the contact surface between the two stacked volumes and reinforces the oblong nature of their geometrical form.

Crossed House at night

The contact to the ground is solved using again the same mechanism of rotation. This time a third, buried volume corresponding to the pool deck rotates with respect to the two volumes of the house to resolve the transition between garden ground and dwelling.

The surface's treatment of the concrete volumes provides a contrast between the outside with a rough finish created by a shuttering of sand blasted pine strips and an interior of smooth finishes. (Source)

An awesome building ... but can we create haiku inspired on this one, or will that be more like a senryu?

Here is my attempt:

sunbeams
caught in the windows
a rich landscape

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, Shifted flowers, later on. For now .... just have fun!