Urban Building – A / Ten + Muller Architects

The project is located in an urban residential area in the city of Quito. The program required a building of eleven departments to develop in six stories high, plus two basement levels for parking. The land has three fronts and a park to the primary side. The land has an aggressive topography, and is located in one of the highest residential town, and for this reason views are also important privileges thereof.

The importance of the building site in relation to its environment and context understanding and recognizing the two front corners and major urban elements. A concrete enclosure element seen side welcomes the duplex ends in a corner and open porch on the terrace. This apart from giving slim volume serves as a finish for a community recreation area of ??the building. Finally, the important advantage of topography, introducing the first floor of the project at the midpoint of the slope, creating a raised garden that sits atop an old stone wall of the existing building.

On the premise of exclusivity that the developer sought for the project, it is proposed that each department is different from another.

In this way, the program is resolved by the court, this being the main tool for the design of the building. A total of eleven departments with the majority of these duplex, nine are different, converting the building into a sort of puzzle where the pieces overlap on implementing and creating horizontal and vertical activity and luminosity through empty space and large windows be seen through them.

In plan, the lot has a broad background and a narrow front, and although it seems illogical to split it in two longitudinally thus achieving locate a duplex apartment on each side of the front, providing each with the main sights. The intention is also to broaden the idea of ??creating departments that feel like home in height and not departments.
The elevations of the building respond to the environment, working regularly with the two front facades large window panels, while the longitudinal facade becomes a more irregular matrix composition, reflecting more clearly the internal program (puzzle).

Finally, the tectonic works as an integral part of the building’s architecture. The area is characterized by strong topography and stone retaining walls of the original houses in the neighborhood. A major effort was to keep the original wall of the existing house. The exposed concrete plays an important role in the definition of framing and defining the volumes on the outside indoors.

The abstraction of white cloth is more powerful than the composition of precast concrete frames that are placed randomly on the facade.

Finally, the use of glass and steel to create the transparency and lightness of the main block in contrast to its monolithic stone base.