Stone / Counterstone

The site has already been terraced in the traditional way. The rough stones create a horizontal stratification of walls that gradually set back to recreate the natural slope of the ground at right angles, creating surfaces for fruit-bearing trees, platforms to wander on, or a swimming pool to enjoy the view.

Atop, a house, to gather the family, in two embracing gestures, also made in natural stone, but in a particular way. The form is a point counter point, the basement level disappearing in an exact replica of the existing terraces, while the family house, above, on two floors, curves its way east and north deploying its spaces on two levels of intersecting sweeps that superimpose their materialities in blurry overlays of fabric, glass, concrete, natural stone and the vegetation of the garden that seeps its way into the architecture. The required cladding, this time interpreted as vertical stone louvers on a discrete stainless steel fixation system, hides the concrete structure behind, and extends occasionally above the glass in selected moments of dematerialization.

Entering the house is an event that happens in between two sweeps, the view  the view towards the impending valley behind the almost absent glass of the lobby.