In Argentina, a secret house hidden by its garden

The Ana Smud studio has created a house that explores the relationship between interior and exterior in a residential neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The lot is bordered by other buildings and is enclosed by a brick wall, creating a true hortus conclusus: an ambiance isolated and separated from the public sphere of the street. Within this new family microcosm, the three-story volume of the house is situated.

The ground floor, characterised by continuous glazing on all four sides, creates a strong visual link with the brick-walled garden. The separation between inside and outside dissolves in the reflections of the glazed walls and in the feeling of inhabiting a space much larger than that defined by the perimeter of the volume. Along the glass walls, bases of the kitchen, work desks, and other low furniture are arranged. The first floor, which seems to float between earth and sky, is instead a volume clad in wood with a vertical texture. On the top level, the glass walls recede, leaving only a slender metal frame to suggest the cubic definition of the volume.

The three floors differ from each other not only in their material treatment but, more importantly, in the various relationships they establish between interior and exterior. In particular, the relationship with vegetation and light takes on three forms that enrich the functional program of the house with three distinct spatial experiences.