The Refuge Quarries designed by Nicolas del Rio and Max Nunez
November 8th, 2008 - Posted in Architecture design, Architecture projects, Residential architectureThe site was an empty pre-existing slope bounded by 2 magnificent stone walls of containment that defined a level of 12 x10 meters, 7.5 meters below the level of access. In turn, highlighted some trees, a well known for the aridity of the Andes.
The home architecture that produces the light of the mountain and the loss that produce thermal windows is something that the old stone shelters, built between the 40s and 60s, knew and content interior check by drilling off in their facades.
The project poses a volume of monolithic stone that fills the vacuum partially defined by retaining walls. Its openings are minimal and were designed from the inside out to illuminate any specific act or to frame a landmark of the landscape, taking care to the residents’ privacy. On this volume of stone, are other elements the perimeter of the cube that you modify and guide: a horizontal window into the main view of the valley whose thickness serves as a seat, which serves a higher volume of material and hall access, and a reticulated bridge that links the street with the higher level of access.
The window of good weather to build on the mountain is very close if it wants to maintain a low cost, so we opted for a skeleton of steel beams and pillars of pre dimensioned that minimized the operations of the wet work. Then, the cage was covered with a succession of layers that respond to different requirements: plywood to the interior spaces to generate warm, insulating layer between the structure, waterproof layers to the exterior stone and slate who nobly resists the low temperatures, snow and Over time, besides establishing a relationship with the shelters of stone neighbors. Unlike the old construction systems of such shelters, too expensive today, the stone here does not have a structural role which is accentuated by its horizontal and vertical lattice, and the arrival of slightly off the walls to the ground.
