Architect Aquiles Jarrín's project for an apartment in the historic centre of Quito embraces the metaphor of the forest to free space from pre-existing constraints through the creation of a vast living area that simulates the experience of living outdoors, in contact with nature.

The large living room is designed as a space without constraints where people and light can circulate fluidly, in communication with the outside view. Left bare by the demolition of the wall, the columns are rethought as simulacra of trees - hence the name given to the house, La Foresta - outlining an interstitial space where a wooden platform is designed to house a small swimming pool. The few pieces of furniture, which can be moved according to needs, are completed by the presence of bespoke furnishings that coincide with the girders arranged on the ground, on the wall or on the ceiling: a new metaphor to suggest a further presence of trees, breaking the canonical orthogonality of the layout to favour a less hierarchical arrangement.

On the walls, the elimination of any cladding outlines a new brutalist soul which enhances the purity of the lines and the generation of new textures. In this open stage, where public and private environments merge, some plants contrast dark tones with their foliage, reflecting the light and enlivening the surrounding space.