“Architecture does not need complicated ideas”: the Malaga house that claims to live around the porch | ICON Design

On the porch you can sunbathe, watch the sunrise or read in the evening light. Also enjoy a family meal, a sit-down meal with friends or relax while the children play. And even take out the laptop to telework with the privilege of a landscape with mountains to the north and sea to the south. In the AC House, designed by the Malaga architectural studio Marina Uno, the porch is the epicenter of a house raised towards the light of Andalusia, but that traps the shadow to make the most of a climate, that of Malaga, that invites to live abroad for nine months a year. With rooms with high ceilings, materials such as wood, brick and lime highlight the Mediterranean inspiration of the property. Chosen among the 50 best houses of 2023 by the Archdaily portal, it is located in the expansion of the El Limonar neighborhood, east of the Malaga capital.

“Architecture does not need complicated ideas,” says architect Juan Manuel Sánchez la Chica, who together with his colleague Adolfo de la Torre Prieto founded the Marina Uno studio in 2004. He says this because it was enough for them to think of the porch as the epicenter of the day to day of the home to develop spaces marked by simplicity and comfort. On a square and completely flat plot, conditioned by the demanding urban planning regulations of the area, he has carried out a containment exercise that avoids fuss to focus on what is important: the enjoyment of its inhabitants. And he does it from multiple aspects. From the distribution to the windows, through the materials or the ability to play with sun and shadow. “Architects always talk about light, but Mediterranean architecture also has to defend shaded spaces,” says De la Torre Prieto.

With 220 meters above ground level – and as many below ground –, Casa AC is made up of five parallel modules, which go from highest to lowest height and are crossed by a perpendicular axis formed by the threshold and a hallway that invites the exterior and interior to merge. . The first module is made up of the bedrooms, with a row of rooms on the ground floor and another above. The second is a patio, which in addition to being a central axis and distributor serves to illuminate the basement, with space to park vehicles and store junk. The third is the one formed by the kitchen and the living room, with large windows overlooking the sea. They take refuge from direct radiation thanks to the fourth module, the porch, which has a steel pergola covered in wood to offer protection from direct sunlight, as well as awnings and shutters that allow some insulation from the outside for excessive days. heat or the few days of winter cold. The last is the garden, with a pool that refreshes the atmosphere. It is protected by plant species such as palm trees or bougainvillea that will give life and color as soon as they grow. A lemon tree supports the tribute to the neighborhood.

In a home clearly linked to Mediterranean architecture, the materials reaffirm it. The main one is brick, on which thin lines of reinforced concrete rest. Made of clay, 23 centimeters long, they are handcrafted, one by one, in the Cerámicas Viceira workshops, in the province of Granada. “They have given us good results in other projects and here they have allowed us to make an envelope, with a rigging based on pilasters that have a structural function but above all seek to shade the façade,” says Sánchez la Chica. “They also help us in composition. And then we painted them white, just like country houses were whitewashed, to reflect the light,” adds De la Torre Prieto.

The Mediterranean is also marked in the Mallorcan blinds, which allow the solar incidence to be filtered just as the volume of the music is raised or lowered. They are also a nod to those windows with up to five layers to intervene light: Majorcan blinds, glass panes, interior shutters, curtains and curtains. “These are traditional architectural issues that should not be forgotten,” the specialists add. To top it off, the carpentry – made of African iroko wood – provides warmth to the building, and the Moleanos limestone floor, from Portugal, provides continuity between interiors and exteriors, like a single rock. “This is a house to go barefoot, to enjoy,” they add.

The cross ventilation, the search for shade, the natural materials, the commitment to brick and the color white are clear indications of the mastery and reinterpretation of traditional Mediterranean architecture in this house, but the architects highlight another influence. It is the Case Study Houses program, developed in the forties, fifties and sixties of the last century in the California environment, especially in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its objective was to build cheap and efficient homes and some of the best architects of the time participated in its designs, such as Pierre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames, Raphael Soriano and Craig Ellwood. Sánchez the Girl shows some of them in a book that he takes from the studio library. “They had quite advanced technology for the time and were designed for a climate similar to that of Malaga,” emphasizes the architect, who also points to renowned influences such as that of José Antonio Coderch and projects such as Casa Ugalde, built in 1951 in Caldes d’ Estrac (Barcelona).

Casa AC is one of the most unique projects by Marina Uno Arquitectos, which these days also faces a major challenge: the roof of the Malaga Cathedral, where they continue the project that Ventura Rodríguez already drew in the 18th century and whose construction began just recently. some weeks. The work for the Bishopric of Malaga continues what they already did in the city’s Diocesan Seminary, designed by Guerrero Strachan a century ago. Another work by this Malaga architect, the Maritime Sanatorium – today the Torremolinos Maritime Hospital, dependent on the Andalusian Health Service – will also see one of its pavilions rehabilitated by the studio. Now, in addition, they are working on building a health center in La Carihuela (Torremolinos) and 140 officially protected homes in the Teatinos neighborhood, in Malaga.

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