Description

For the Turegano House, Alberto Campo Baeza put his idea of interlinked spaces into impressive practice for the first time. The starkly abstract body is a pure, unarticulated cube of 10 x 10 x 10 metres, indicating the architect’s prefigurative approach to design. Geometry is seen as the most important ordering factor, determining hierarchy, spatial disposition and light. The sloping plot is on the outskirts of Madrid; it is bordered by a high wall on the access side and drops markedly with the terrain on the south side. This drop does not just split the site up, it indicates the internal structure of the building as well: the servant rooms line up on the northern access side, and the served rooms are on the south side.

The entrance floor (0) contains the kitchen and an adjacent gallery with a guest apartment opposite. Above this (+1) are the bedrooms, bathrooms and the dining room; and right at the top (+2) is a rooftop structure with study and access to the roof terrace. The living room is right at the bottom at level -1 and faces the terrace on the south side. The structure of the house is particularly recognizable in section: the rooms are offset by half a storey each time and linked by open galleries, creating diagonal relationships. Apertures that are flat and flush on the outside permit diagonal lighting, bringing all the floors together in this way to create a fluid space-light continuum.

The diagonal space becomes the theme of the building, with spatial links developed mutually over several storeys via galleries and extending right into the studio space in the rooftop structure. The abstract, integral form of the building forms a powerful contrast with this.

---

Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.