© Fernando Alda

Casa Viva la Vega by Serrano Baquero Arquitectos

Horacio and Vanesa’s childhood memories are linked to the Granada plain; the murmur of the ditches, the coolness in the shade of the poplars, the materiality and light inside the dryers or the distant landscape of the Sierra Nevada… …the house serves as a manifesto and a transmitting element of the love that The clients profess their two children to this agricultural territory, making them also enjoy an atmosphere similar to that of their childhood.

Architects: Serrano Baquero Arquitectos
Location: Albolote, Granada, Spain
Photography: Fernando Alda

The balance between the wishes and memories of an agricultural nature of the clients with their needs materialized through the elements present in the place and in the adjoining agricultural infrastructures. A plantation of poplars appears as a welcome and an elevated ditch accompanies from the entrance of the house to the pool. A large sunny garden area is set up next to a pergola for relaxation. Between these elements and in relation to them is the house, of simple but careful construction, which shows concrete and ceramic brick as the main materials.

The project tried to respond to the geometry of the plot by adopting an elongated configuration, reminiscent of tobacco dryers. This situation allowed an interesting relationship and exchange between both long facades, due to their proximity. We proposed a series of sections that were responding to the different boundary conditions depending on their position. Thus, opaque walls of different heights appeared, roofs with different slopes, skylights, latticework, and windows depending on the opportunity for distant views, direct or filtered light, the presence of nearby buildings, contact with the irrigation channel, or the orchard and the need for privacy. It was our intention that at certain points of the house there were views that crossed it completely, allowing light, air, the sound of water, and the gaze to cross the space contained within the corridor. Vanesa, Horacio, Marco, and Mauro could go through the volume longitudinally, through the sections that follow one another, and establish changing spatial relationships according to the hours of the day and the seasons.