CAFM HOUSE

Ah baby, let's get married,
We’ve been alone too long.
Let's be alone together.

—Leonard Cohen, Waiting for the Miracle

The notion of intimacy is symptomatic of modernity, because the idea of collectivity loses weight in the face of the primacy of the individual. Nothing is more sacred in our contemporary societies than the right to privacy and to have a place that invites a state of peace and tranquility.

However, housing complexes such as the one that houses Casa CAFM often imitate urban life, their density is merely commercial and this hinders privacy between homes. Therefore, the starting point of this project was to provide users — a young couple — with the greatest possible privacy, in addition to integrating their experiences and acquired references in the trips they have taken together.

The house is developed in four stone volumes that are connected by an internal patio-garden that invites us to contemplate the place and to inhabit the space inwards. From the outside, the house appears to be just a concrete block with a narrow opening; but upon entering, the spaces open completely to the central patio that illuminates the entire house with natural light. The use of glass and the water mirror blur the boundaries between environments, so that the vacuum allows us to change the traditional configuration of a house to achieve an intimate space in which users can live their own atmosphere.