Domingo shortly got here up with a plan: Add a second ground that will maintain the façade in place and forestall the roof from falling in, whereas addressing the issues created by the sooner venture. Within the course of, they might additionally create a loft area that will improve the overall residing space. This might be achieved by including a sequence of latest trusses. They’d be mild sufficient to not overload the prevailing design, but robust sufficient to satisfy their mandatory structural perform.
“Along with our structural engineer, Manuel Ocaña, we got here up with an answer that met all of our necessities: a really light-weight tubular sequence of trusses, whose energy was based mostly on utilizing many anchor factors. By dispersing them throughout the complete floor—what we name ‘atomizing’ them—we prevented concentrating weight at any single level and, on the identical time, this helped to ‘stiffen’ the roof,” Domingo recollects. “It gave us light-weight and efficient trusses that not solely shored up the construction but additionally gave us sufficient further room in order that one or two folks can comfortably use a brand new small loft area to relaxation or calm down.”
The result’s a 194-square-foot addition. “The higher space is visually separate, but it surely stays linked to the decrease ground,” the studio explains. Actually, the complete house is one interconnected area (aside from the lavatory) making it really feel bigger than it’s, at lower than 540 sq. toes.
On this distinctive area, completely different colours and supplies play key roles in creating separate zones. “As I began engaged on the structural design, there was one phrase that popped into my head that then formed every part else: weightlessness. I don’t know why, however there was one thing about the way in which the construction held collectively, or moderately, they manner it wasn’t held in place—that jogged my memory of a kite hovering gently within the sky. From that picture, the colours, textures, and the supplies that ended up shaping the venture began appearing,” Domingo explains.
