A plot’s orientation is essential to achieve an excellent bioclimatic design that allows us to reduce energy demand. In the Northern Hemisphere, we always seek a south-facing orientation, where we can achieve maximum solar exposure.

But what happens if the best views are to the north?

This is the case with our clients’ plot north of Madrid: land in a privileged location, elevated above the rest of the development and with exceptional views over the Guadarrama Mountains, with a northward descending orientation that offers outstanding views of the mountain range and the national park.

SITE IMPLEMENTATION

This plot in the Guadarrama Mountains has a slope descending from the street towards the north—where the best views are. This condition becomes the main design constraint, as we must make the most of both orientations: the south-facing orientation, where we want to open up to capture sunlight, and the north-facing orientation, where we want to enjoy the landscape.

The project starts from a conventional housing programme, to which the family wants to add an independent, flexible office space that can be converted into a guest room.

Given the need to separate both programmes, we consider the possibility of splitting it into two volumes. These will be integrated into the slope of the site to optimise solar gain and north-facing views.

Accordingly, we propose a main family-home volume and an annex-module volume that houses the studio and guest room, as well as a storage area.

INTEGRATION INTO THE SITE AND SOLAR GAIN

As the plot has a steep slope, dividing it into two volumes allows us to create a layout that adapts to the different levels, integrating the whole and reducing the building’s impact on the surroundings.

This fragmentation allows us to free up a generous plaza-garden space that fully opens the main home volume to the south and achieves excellent solar gain.

Meanwhile, the annex module, which functions as a workspace, faces north—an excellent orientation for workspaces as it avoids glare, but one that requires a strategy to bring in sun and warm naturally in winter. We achieve this by creating a solar-capture courtyard at the highest level along the plot boundary.

Having resolved solar gain to the south, we only need to enhance the views to the north in the main home module—a challenge we solve with a continuous horizontal window in the central living–dining–kitchen space, allowing us to enjoy views over the Guadarrama Mountains without causing thermal losses.

PROGRAM

The dual orientation—solar gain and north-facing views—guides the layout of the home, seeking to make the most of this condition and provide each room with sunlight and views without prioritising any space over another.

Thus, we begin with a main living–dining and kitchen space, truly privileged: sunny, with north-facing views over the mountains, spacious, and square in plan as the centre of the home.

On both sides of the central space are the bedroom areas, which also take advantage of the north–south development. The sleeping areas open to the south, where we achieve the best natural sunlight, and the bathrooms are placed to the north, enabling effective cross-ventilation to cool the rooms at night.

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM AND INSULATION

The home is based on a system of load-bearing walls made of prefabricated concrete blocks. These are arranged in a central bay that contains the daytime spaces, and two narrower bays on either side that comprise the night-time areas, which are more enclosed due to the need for greater privacy.

The interior walls follow a strategy of temperature storage through thermal mass, protected from the outside with cork insulation, which is left exposed as the façade finish.