Guayasamin House and Museum by Diego Guayasamin

 In terms of its image, the house is an architectural volume, protagonist and dynamic. It is the articulation of white volumes with a very clear and defined rhythm, and slanted exterior walls. All the elements are intended to be an interpretation of the environment, specifically the Andes. The roofs have the same treatment as the slanted walls, thus creating the idea of the “fifth facade”. The roof-facade is equally important in the aesthetic composition. This is a modern project that rescues Ecuadorean traditional architectural elements such as: load bearing walls, stone baseboards, interior courtyard with a water feature, great presence of walls versus openings for windows mostly recessed to create light and shadow effects, among others.

 One of the decisions of the architect was to build an exterior architectural diaphragm, which acts as a screen in its most literal sense. It is like a blank sheet that integrates into the architecture and projects it, separating the pool space from the vehicle circulation area.

 Since the site had a steep slope, the first approach was to integrate the project into the local topography and design it on the highest area to gain height. Taking advantage of the slope, lawn slopes were designed to serve as a natural base for the proposed architecture. The social areas are located towards Cotopaxi mountain. The bedroom area is oriented directly with the morning sun, and overlooking the Cumbaya valley with the Cordillera Oriental and Antisana and Cayambe mountains behind. Internal areas such as study, family room, and others, “open” towards an interior courtyard with a reflecting pool, and in the middle a pre-Columbian milestone designed by architect Gustavo Guayasamin, as the vertical axis of the project.

 All images © Sebastián Crespo

via archdaily

Guayasamin House and Museum by Diego Guayasamin