The Raumplan House in Aravaca, Madrid, Spain is situated on a sloping plot with a landscape of distant horizon along the town’s western mountain range, which is well-viewed from Camarines. The concrete house, with rooftops planted with jasmine and vines, has its more public areas located at the upper levels to take advantage of the stunning, local views. Local regulations required the design team to work with a square ground plan of 12×12 m, the team devised a “2+2+2 is much more than 6” design proposal, dividing the plan into four 6×6 m squares, as well as raising the ground planes — square by square –with a simple helicoidal movement.
The spaces are of double height and intersect with one another — also helicoidal — producing diagonality. The home’s namesake, Raumplan, is named for the employed spatial mechanism along with the concatenation of spiraling double spaces, as each of the two double spaces are connected by vertical displacement to create the diagonal space. For example, as you ascend, you’ll turn 90 degrees and connect it with the other two. Should you continue to go up turning a further 90 degrees, you get the concatenation of three spiraling diagonal spaces, similar to a corkscrew.
[Thanks Alberto Campo Baeza]
