Architect: AGRA Arquitectos
Location: Vila de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia
Completion year: Desing: 2015 – 2016, Construction: 2017
Area: 280m2
Photographs: AGRA Arquictos
The project Casa Calderón is located in Villa de Leyva, a region not so far from Bogotá, with mild dry weather, a rich cultural heritage, and a beautiful landscape. The project addresses a careful, yet meaningful way to insert harmoniously into the landscape, through the reinterpretation of the traditional architectural type of the patio-house, but with a nonorthogonal but triangular geometrical “V” shape, oriented towards the Iguaque peak, sacred to the Muisca ancestors.
The design concept is inspired in the reinterpretation of the local building techniques and construction types, with the use of local materials, lending an austere, almost monastic character for its external image, and a light, intimate one in its interior patio: stone and timber for the floorings, whitewashed ceramic walls, timber roof structure and natural wood interior floors. Its interior space is disposed of by two wings adjacent to the main entrance: at the right side the social areas, integrating kitchen, dining and living room, with the fireplace at the center.
The external landscape is framed by the squared shaped windows, as the internal view of the patio is wide open, through sliding windows that allow integrating outside and inside realms, enjoying the mild dry weather, especially at day time. At the left, along the external corridor between the patio and the construction, the private family rooms, each one with its services, and with square-shaped windows towards the exterior gardens.
The central patio is the heart of the house: is the place that invites to remain all day long, enjoying the backstage landscape of the mountain chain and the Iguaque Peak, and the nearest view of the pond at the edge, and the surrounding gardens.