Reinterpreting the rural house

"A whole town may intervene on the manual labors of carrying adobes, cracking Guadua bamboo or kneading clay, but throughout time and places on earth, only a few have been able to guide spatial order as opposed to natural chaos", states Colombian author and architect Germán Tellez in his book Casa Campesina, where he also addresses the importance of an improvised architecture without pretensions that stands out in popular vernacular constructions widely found in Latin-American rural areas.

That concept of building with soil and the Hispanic-indigenous mixture that for centuries has identified the region´s architectonical endeavor served as inspiration for architect Carlos Granada, from Granada Garcés Arquitectos firm when taking a first draft at drawing Casa Macarena.

However, the project´s origin emerges from a much simpler and at the same time profound idea. "We arrived at Villa de Leyva and fell in love with a plot of land with ideal topological characteristics. For 2 years we committed to reforesting it, aiming for a balanced and biodiverse ecological restitution while we managed to understand the land in order to set out what would be our dream house", says Granada who along with his wife, also architect Camila Buitrago, was in charge of projecting this house nestled in the Iguaque Valley, in the Colombian Andes.

"Conflicted within our own concepts of what a contemporary architecture house should be, and taking into account the rigorous limitations of Villa de Leyva´s Heritage Office demands -colonial characteristics, it was our daughter Macarena who figured out what our house would be: a gable roof, supported by a simple two-story structure very similar to what a little kid would draw", he adds.

Nonetheless, this simple-looking house is the result of a complex and exploratory exercise of origin, materials, and technics. It is a rectangular two-level volume (7.5m width and 15m length) east-west oriented where a crystalized void allows the infinite landscape and the morning sun to permeate the social areas of the house. Opposed to that, the rooms are private spaces that compile the Sáchica Valley´s arid view and the afternoon sun that warms them for the evening to come.

Whilst their proposal is far from conventional, it is through its design that the innovation camouflages within the great volume of colonial appearance. "The identity of these towns is preserved through the conservation of homogenous patterns. What you don’t want to do is bring a contemporary architecture to a dissonant context", states the architect and then adds that the volume that makes up the house is built with a rusted metal structure with exclusively rectangular sections that, at a glance, mistakes the metal industrial nature with the wood – a typical resource of local architecture.

Thanks to that structural disposition it was possible to completely open the lounge into the floating deck and the adjacent woods to achieve a candid and direct relation with nature. The V-shaped gantries that hold the starring platform made with caña brava fiber and recycled clay tile provide 2-meter perimeter flight overhangs that additionally offers protection from rain and sun.

"Casa Macarena´s architecture is assembled by the perpendicular symmetrical walls that make up the stair´s void that also define the private area of the house. This half has a bedroom with a bathroom for each level and an open study towards the double height. These walls and the ones that close the façade were coated with a unique and raw finish, the result of mixing caustic lime with fique fibers and crushed adobe. The reticular windows – also made in rusted metal, and from where it is also possible to exit the house, section the scale and the path of those who inhabit the space". Granada and Buitrago add. Also, a great gabion retaining wall made with local stones brings the Granada trademark to the architectonic proposal.

The interior design approach led by Camila Buitrago is closely related to the architecture and complements it with the use of minimalist Japanese-style dark woods, light textiles, and warm fabrics. The furniture proposal, objects, and accessories with a high content of contemporary artisan design blend the interior with the exterior thanks to the direct contact with the surrounding landscaping which took them so much time to design. These are key elements for Casa Macarena to function perfectly with the land that holds it.

"When architects create their homes, it is their own claim, and Casa Macarena is our premise within the architectural trade; Architecture as a stage of prosperous creation. It is the reflection of our beliefs and an atypical exercise, an exercise of life", they conclude.