Excerpts: Pagodas Houses, designed by OOIIO Architecture, showcases sun protection as a key design element. Within a uniform residential setting, two simple rectangular homes gain uniqueness through sculptural, plan-twisted pergolas. These elements control sunlight, improve energy efficiency, and give the residences a distinct identity, breaking the monotony of their surroundings while enhancing comfort and spatial quality.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] When sun protection defines the project. Monte de La Villa development is an immense residential plain where many single-family homes have been built in a few years. It belongs to the municipality of Villaviciosa de Odón, a city very close to Madrid’s capital. The success of this location lies in offering the possibility of living in a house with a garden near the big city. Several developers have built repetitive houses side by side, creating a homogeneous landscape that only changes when we reach the next development, which in turn will repeat the same solution another 20 or 30 times.
Two siblings and their families bought adjacent plots here with the idea of designing and building two semi-detached houses at the same time so they could share costs and thus achieve savings. The housing program they requested was very similar to that of the surrounding houses, which grew like mushrooms all around, but they wanted to opt for homes with a more personalized design.
The regulations of this development are really strict and do not allow for many variations, which in the end has its negative consequences from an urban planning perspective. When all the houses, streets and other urban spaces are the same, we create alignment, monotony and routine. With a traditional housing program and regulations that directly lead to the repetition and homogenization of all the houses in this area, the architects faced the challenge of somehow achieving the uniqueness the clients were asking for.
It so happened that the project began to be designed in 2019. During the final design phase, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, followed by the subsequent materials crisis and widespread price increases.
Faced with so many constraints, the architects opted to resolve the homes in the simplest possible way: fitting the program into two perfect rectangular boxes, complying with all regulatory restrictions, easy to build, and without extravagant elements that could derail the final budget at a time when nothing was stable.
Uniqueness emerged when addressing the energy efficiency of the houses, incorporating plan-twisted pergolas into the design that help control Madrid´s strong sun exposure on the façades and windows of each home, thus significantly reducing energy consumption for climate control.
These pergolas suddenly become the key feature of the project, giving the homes their personality, filling them with movement, while also helping to create a more pleasant microclimate by casting shadows in the surrounding gardens. All the houses in the neighboring developments are exactly the same as each other. Suddenly, these two semi-detached houses emerge with their large pergolas extending over their gardens like the elongated roofs of an oriental pagoda, giving them personality, making them special and unique.
By controlling the sun exposure on the façades, the architects were also able to create larger openings, even designing a large double-height window in the living room-kitchen-dining area, thus achieving interiors that are truly bright, filled with clarity and a sense of spaciousness.
The project’s material palette, both inside and outside the houses, follows the clients’ preferences. We see cream tones, stone, wood, grays… textures that evoke nature and give us a sense of comfort, promoting a calm, pleasant, and enjoyable family life.
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