Alternative Housing Project for The State of Bolivar, Venezuela

September 1996

Design proposal for the prototype for urban and rural housing. The object of this project is to solve both, the urban and the rural housing problem. Due to the extension and variety of the geography of this region, we decided to develop under similar criteria the physical and spatial organization.

The rural model has been designed with the references of the prototypes of the region. These prototypes end up having a very efficient design and construction. The task of reinterpreting these models of open galleries, the basic scheme of organization, clearly establishes two areas that correspond to the public and the private spaces. The social area opens up in a form of a gallery although there is the possibility to close it. The private area, with a larger number of compartments, include service areas concentrated in the dividing wall, which concentrates most of the storage areas as well as the services, and bares weight from the roof. The roof considers the spatial organization as two individual roofs that overlap, leaving a void in order to let the hot air out in it’s highest point, as well as to give a different hierarchy to the social area. In general terms, the house is flexible to admit different layouts, and for such reason, different ways of using it.

The urban house model is conceived in a common wall lot with an internal courtyard. The difference between each side of the “patio” suggests a different program. Closing elements determine the space, having the opportunity to enlarge any of these sides by just manipulating them. The social area is determined by a front yard enclosed by a wall and the patio. The private area is the fourth side of the patio, built to be able to grow vertically. The roof also determines the program under them, the social area, with tilted roofs, with a light aspect and flat roofs over the private area. The structure of the roof on the second level of the private area, meant to be developed in time, may bear a light roof, similar to the one previously mentioned.