Casa Caoba sits on a tropical hillside in Colombia, the place PAE locations the 2024 home amongst established mango bushes almost 900 meters above sea degree. The undertaking makes use of a stone basis and 5 parallel partitions to form 4 home modules, body the Andean panorama, and pull cross air flow by the inside. Its strongest concept is direct: the home treats constructed house and residing terrain as a part of the identical subject.
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About Casa Caoba
Casa Caoba stands on a tropical hillside in Colombia, 900 meters above sea degree, in a web site marked by steep floor and mango bushes which have occupied it for greater than a decade. Designed by PAE in 2024, the home takes the panorama as an lively situation slightly than a backdrop, utilizing its siting to assist meditation, relaxation, and a better studying of the terrain.
The undertaking begins with a stone basis that adapts to the slope. On that base, 5 parallel partitions prolong throughout the location and set out 4 home modules. This linear system provides the home its order, however it additionally does extra sensible work: the partitions body views towards the Andean panorama and assist transfer air by the inside, creating cross air flow and small climatic variations in a area the place temperatures repeatedly rise above 30 levels Celsius.
Moderately than sealing rooms into mounted enclosures, Casa Caoba reduces longitudinal partitions to a minimal. Openings reduce into the transverse partitions set up direct relationships between areas, permitting the home to learn as a sequence of linked interiors and open thresholds. The association loosens the sting between constructing and web site, making every room half of a bigger environmental alternate as an alternative of a sealed quantity.
That concept turns into clearest within the central module, which the undertaking units apart for reflection and reconnection with nature. Its southern aspect stays uncovered so daylight can enter all through the day, whereas vegetation is launched from the north. The outcome just isn’t a indifferent retreat house however one which is dependent upon publicity, air, and plants to outline its character.
Materials selections observe the identical easy logic. The home prioritizes trustworthy, regionally obtainable supplies and native methods. Bamboo slats run throughout the ceilings all through the undertaking, giving continuity to the inside surfaces, whereas pine carpentry and teak furnishings reinforce a restrained palette. Stone and ceramic within the basis present a more durable counterpoint to the heat of the wooden components above.
What makes Casa Caoba notable is the readability with which it negotiates its setting. It doesn’t deal with the hillside as one thing to be erased, nor the tropical setting as surroundings outdoors the partitions. As a substitute, the home works as a mediator between home use, topography, vegetation, solar, and transferring air, with every open house formed by that ongoing alternate.
Pictures courtesy of PAE
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– by Matt Watts
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