Magnolia House, Arrayanas Ecuador, South American Real Estate Project, Ecuadorian Architecture Images

Magnolia House in Arrayanas

24 Feb 2022

Architecture: Estudio Felipe Escudero

Location: Arrayanas, Ecuador, South America

Magnolia House

“Designing a house for a mother is not only an act of design but an act of love”.

Photos: Haley Lee & Saul Endara

Magnolia House, Ecuador

Modernism famous motto “a house is a machine for living in” takes on different meanings as we move from the machine age into the digital one. What makes a house special is that you are designing a specific lifestyle for a specific person in a specific time and place.

So, when you are posed the question to design a house for your mother, the person who had you in her womb before you were born, it means a lot of additional history and emotion has to be incorporated in the space. This is an opportunity for the project to strive for more than simple efficiency and that provides the owner an emotional connection to family and her childhood.

“My mother always told me stories about a Magnolia tree she had in her house as a child, so her new house is organized around a courtyard that frames a Magnolia tree as the center of the residence. The concrete ceiling delicately turns into walls providing the feeling of being hugged and protected”. This element also allows for the house to feel transparent and at the same time provide privacy.

In addition to the simple, functional logic, the house design expresses the complex and multiple needs of contemporary living: it responds to the significance of being located at the top of a mountain valley, elegantly and delicately sitting on the ground like a spaceship that just landed and it acts as a surprise and awe element in the landscape.

“There is something beautiful about making architecture look like a sculpture that was really easy to make, like it was made with grace”. It is something natural, sculptural and human. Familiar yet distinct, the house appears to have either landed in the mountain from another world or to always have always existed there. “When making something of the scale of a building, there is always a social component to consider. I think we need fantasy and dreams to live better”.

Our design features one thin post-tensioned concrete slab with large spans and overhangs. This allows a traditionally rigid and heavy material look like it’s floating in space. Floor to ceiling operable glass facades and a continuous covered balcony that surrounds the whole building, eliminates barriers between interior and exterior, brings natural light and air into all the spaces of the house.

The resulting effect is the entire building provides 360 degree views of the surrounding scenery awakening appreciation of nature in their residents. The back terrace with spectacular views towards the natural landscape seems to land on the infinity pool covered in green tiles to resemble one more natural element.

Lush tropical gardens with big leafs provide humidity to the ambient and minimizes maintenance. Solar panels cover the roof to provide hot water and minimize the environmental footprint along with passive systems strategies like ceramic tiles covering all the roof surface that insulate heat and cold from the interior.

Cast in place concrete combined with steel and glass make spaces feel modern and cozy. All electrical appliances are installed on lightweight prefab drywalls meaning maintenance is easily resolved. Indirect lighting throughout the house is placed at the top and bottom edges of walls in order to separate architectural elements but also to light the concrete slab from the bottom and highlight its natural character.

“My mother has always had a deep interest both in modern art and in Brazilian naif folklore. So the architecture, interiors and gardens follow this logic, combining hyper functionalism with a playful use of shapes, and a magic almost impossible use of materials”.

The building is enriched with a convergence of naturalistic furniture and decoration bathed in light

also designed by Felipe Escudero. The result is a timeless architecture filled with character that feels like a sanctuary that inspires the user to reconnect with her roots.

Magnolia House in Arrayanas, Ecuador – Building Information

Studio: Felipe Escudero – http://felipeescudero.com/

Single type residence: 700sqm
Completion: 2021

Photography: Haley Lee & Saul Endara

Magnolia House, Arrayanas Ecuador images / information received 230222 from Estudio Felipe Escudero

Location: Arrayanas, Ecuador, South America

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