House on Lot 23 by Juan Esteban Correa Elejalde
Colombian architect Juan Esteban Correa Elejalde has designed a hillside house for a family to spend their weekends and holidays in.
Full description after the photos….
House on Lot 23 by Juan Esteban Correa Elejalde
THE CLIENTS:
A Colombian couple living abroad (in Spain) for many years decided to come back to the country as they felt security and economic conditions had changed with the latest elected president. He and his wife wanted to establish their family and business here again and that meant not only buying an apartment and opening business, but also to have a place to spend weekend and holidays with the family, a long established tradition among Colombians.
For the latest they came to the office after my wife, an interior designer, decorated their apartment in the city. Their initial request was on two subjects:
THE TASK:
1. Help them find the right place for their holiday house on a well inhabited and secure site with specific natural conditions like warm weather, nice views, not flat, among others…
2. To design a house for them and the kids with a modern, contemporary look that could remind them of their life in Europe and that could preserve and actual look in time as well as a house that, in some way could have a reminiscent idea of traditional colonial houses –this last idea appeared in the end after the selection of the site.
On the last idea, it was clear that I had to preserve a traditional organization of the house “inwards”, I mean, thinking more on the life of the home than on the social life. Here, one could perceive the idea of Islamic influenced Spanish architecture that was brought here to America in the colonising period.
On the modern contemporary look, the idea was to work with pure volumes with character of their own that by operating them through intersections, the complete volume and program of the house were created.
graham on 12 Jul 2009 at 4:42 pm #
I don’t mind the house. It’s not my favourite by a long shot but it has some nice elements to it and seems to work quite well as a complete entity. UNTIL you get to the god awful blue swimming pool. What an absolute disaster!
Lance on 12 Jul 2009 at 7:18 pm #
It has no heart to it. The only thing about this place that has anything even vaguely interesting about it is the.. guess what I’m going to say graham…, the pool. It’s great, faces the mountains, and… Wait… House on Lot 23 by Juan Esteban Correa Elejalde… Juan Esteban Correa Elejalde…. If you mix the letters around ou get CoCaInE. Holy crap! Where in the hell did they hide the turrets, the guards in camo? How did they not think we’d figure this out with all the “white lines” in the photos and that it’s a luxury home on Columbia. Even a second grader could have figured this out… Beyond it’s hilarity factor, for obvious reasons, it’s a nice house with a great view and pool and that’s pretty much about it.
AYT on 12 Jul 2009 at 10:54 pm #
Right, and every American architect’s name could be rearranged to spell “OIL”, or “ILLEGAL WAR”, or “BUSH-VOTER”. Please, keep the politics out of architecture and see this house for what it is. A brilliant take on the colonial-style home. That open-air sit-out is a stroke of genius. If you imagine being in that house in that climate and geography, you’ll know why it’ll probably be as good as it looks.
Rudy on 13 Jul 2009 at 3:28 am #
A lot of things to enjoy here. Beautiful setting.
Somehow the repetition of the boxes makes this building look like a series of connected individual houses.
Clasou on 13 Jul 2009 at 4:26 am #
For once, it differs from all the other houses we can see on this website. I love this house and its blue pool!!
steve on 13 Jul 2009 at 4:14 pm #
AYT is missing the fact that Lance was joking. Nothing political going on here.
For my tastes, the place is exceedingly cold. I love contemporary minimalism, but it can be done with a certain warmth. This house does not achieve that.
Lance on 13 Jul 2009 at 8:44 pm #
Thanks Steve. It never fails to astonish me how many people can’t tell the differnence between something obviously silly like I said, followed by slight praise for the dwelling, and racist diatribe.
But I can’t say I have walked a mile in AYT’s shoes so there may be reasons he feels so strongly about my comments. So if you perceived them as hurtful I truly am sorry. But humor, my standard of it, is what I use when I talk about everything from death to politics to fashion/art/design, food, anything. If I can make one person smile, I’ve done my job.
So smile AYT and be happy.
eraidesigns on 14 Jul 2009 at 6:06 pm #
I also really like the repetition of the blocks as I feel it adds some necessary variety to the design and gives it a little more indiviuality.
I also love the blue-tiled pool! While I agree that it does not go very well with the house, it feels very inviting to me reminding me very much of Mexico (even though it’s in Columbia)!
JOSTEPH on 22 Jul 2009 at 11:46 am #
Please learn the correct spelling is COLOMBIA… two O’s
Mubashar Abrar on 03 Aug 2009 at 3:47 am #
Its a nice home. And the location is just breath taking. But what about the security, I mean its all made up of glass and a thief could easily get in. Or are they bullet proof??