Casa ametlla en Dwell Magazine

 

Tercera publicación en la revista estadounidense Dwell con un artículo sobre nuestro proyecto en la Ametlla titulado «Una familia española echa raíces con una acogedora casa pasiva en tonos tierra.»

Para leer el artículo de Dwell: Passive House in Ametlla

Para ver el proyecto en nuestra web: Casa en la Ametlla

 

A SPANISH FAMILY SETS DOWN ROOTS WITH A COZY, EARTH-TONED PASSIVE HOUSE

 

Their barrel-vaulted dwelling is so efficient that they didn’t have to turn on the heater last winter.

 

In the province of Barcelona, Spain, just 15 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, lies the picturesque village of l’Ametlla del Vallès. Today, a young couple named Carol and Martí, along with their two children, Claudi and Otto, call this valley home. To build their dream house, the couple partnered with Barcelona-based Slow Studio, a firm renowned for designing and constructing passive houses with a focus on bioclimatic strategies that reduce energy consumption.

«When we all met, both partners of the studio and the young couple shared similar values and ways of doing things,» says Jade Serra, partner and cofounder at Slow Studio. «A close connection was immediately generated that allowed us to develop the project in total harmony.»

Prioritizing the quality of the indoor environment was paramount for the couple, who both work from home in addition to home-schooling their children. «We decided to allocate a main part of the budget to the passive functioning of the house, investing in materials that would provide us with environmental quality and energy efficiency,» says Jade. «Passive design is where you don’t have to activate anything to achieve comfort. In this case, we worked with a thermal buffer: the patio greenhouse. The result is an economical, natural system that is as—or more—efficient than controlled mechanical ventilation.»

For Jade, the most gratifying part of the job came at the end, shortly after the family had taken up residence. One morning, she visited the site with photographer Salva Lopez and video director Oriol Cuesta from Grey Agency Matter Barcelona.

«It was early December, close to the winter solstice, with soft light and an outside temperature of five degrees Celsius,» Jade says. «We remember the feeling of entering the house at 9 a.m., with the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the first rays of sunlight illuminating the living room and kitchen. The patio temperature was already 18 degrees, thanks to the heat coming in from the greenhouse glass. The family was beginning to inhabit every corner—little Otto, who was then eight months old, was playing on the carpet in the living room, and two-year-old Claudi was with his father in the kitchen. The atmosphere we breathed that day was undoubtedly the best part of the whole process.»