Casa R&R is located in a dense pine forest. It is a family’s main house, it’s not a vacation home, for that very reason special attention was placed on the relationship between the private areas of the house to the ‘day’ areas and a frank separation with the public areas of the house: a yoga classroom for 20 students and a guest suit. 

The house’s scheme responds to the aforementioned needs and adds the topography of the plot plus the inclusion of the largest pine trees on the site. The result is a clear H scheme where the central binding element is the kitchen and dining room. The longest volume is on the highest part of the plot and has the more public areas which are: garage, guest suite, the yoga classroom and laundry room. The 10 feet high retaining wall that shapes this volume also helps to isolate it from the rest of the house. From the garage you walk into a vestibule to the yoga classroom, laundry and a staircase that accesses the kitchen and dinging room. This is the neuro central space of the house, it is an abstract box with flat roof and is markedly differentiated form the other volumes due to it’s modern esthetic, transparency and accessibility. From there, the living room is accessed down a staircase and is divided into two areas: an informal one with TV and a formal area with fireplace. The living room is part of the second large volume of the house and sits lower than the rest. It’s organized by a long hallway to the bedrooms and is flanked by a wood blank wall on one side and high window panes that open up to a private garden which faces east so as to bring in the morning light. At the end of the hallway sits the master bedroom, separated by a small patio isolating it from the children’s bedrooms. The master bathroom has it’s own patio with wooden walls for privacy and access to the exterior from the bathroom itself. At the opposite end the living room has a private family terrace with an outdoor fireplace.

The kitchen / dining room has the private garden on it’s north side which is edged by a water fountain, to the south it opens up to an open terrace with a large family dining table and a grill and pizza oven on the retaining wall to the east.

Building materials were kept to the bare minimum: stone, wood, steel, glass and black roof tiles are the only materials used in the house.