Valle de Mena Housing

Valle de Mena, Burgos. Spain | 2008

Pubesa

The purpose of the project is to develop a group of houses within a private development whose main value is the natural setting. Located in Ventades, a village in the Valle de Mena, the project consists of twenty single units whose distribution logics seek to create green areas for collective recreation, vehicle and pedestrian accesses, and areas for expansion for each single home. The result is a volumetric whole with balanced and proportioned open spaces, capable of maintaining the equilibrium between nature and houses intact and appropriate for community living.

Regarding typology, the house model used revolves around an open patio that separates it from the immediate surroundings with a movable screen. The living room, kitchen and family room as well as the master suite embrace three sides of the patio providing depth and amplitude to the house. So, the courtyard is conceived as another living space, of similar size to the rest of the rooms, becoming the best area in the house and unifying all its spaces. Almost a century later, this typology links up with the research carried out by architects such as Hilberseimer, Mies or Utzon regarding houses with a courtyard in residential developments. Those architects sought to provide homes with a portion of nature by opening a space to the exterior representing a personal dialogue of the individual with the universe.