These basal parameters of architecture are interpreted in the Casa l’Aspre, a house in the Alicante town of Orba, situated on a pentagonal plot of nearly 1000m². The plot in a pencil-like form is marked by a steep slope, as is common in this area, which descends from south to north, surrounded by the perpetual presence of the sea, by Mediterranean vegetation of the characteristic green of the east, and by a residential and extensive occupation of the land.
In terms of the location of the plot, the house is situated on the central part of the terrain, a position which allows it to frame the best panoramas, including the sea in the background. Access to the house is thus found at the lowest level, connected to the street and establishing the first point of promenade of the Aspre House. The organisation of the outdoor space results from the topography of the terrain, but also from the desire to preserve the existing woodland on the plot. In the aridity of the new house terrain, in which varying stone materials overlap, one can also spot the presence of forgotten vegetation throughout the house, giving it an enhancing backdrop.
On the ascending trail to the house, the pathways of the plot create an alignment of visuals, in which the volumes of the house, placed like two superposed parts are seen in their ultimate grandiosity. In this way, the Aspre House is structured over two levels, two boxes of reinforced concrete, of an expressive nature, orthogonally situated and supported by the same stonework walls which divide the garden. Each room, responding to the programme of uses, whilst also possessing clear relational intentions, is dedicated to a day and night use on the ground and first floors respectively. At the convergence of both prisms, the access is found, distorting itself slightly towards the interior of one of its larger sides in order to indicate the entry and preserve part of the existing vegetation. The hard concrete doubles up on itself so that the tree can grow, like flowers born of a rock, whilst also enabling the appearance of intermediary spaces such as galleries and terraces.
If outside this contrast between hard and soft is created, between lifeless and living, inside there is a contrast between material and light, between earthly and heavenly. The house fills itself with air, suggesting weightlessness, ascension, lightness. The central space, the convergence of the two bodies and the only space at twice the height of the house, acts like a hinge, a vertical axis which enables the rotation of the visual elements. Here is where the staircase is situated, acting like a funnel and separating (although not physically), the uses of the ground floor kitchen and lounge, from the bedrooms and studio of the upper floor. In this way, the hallways mark the gradation of “solitude,” without needing to physically fragment the space, allowing for the understanding of the two volumes under the light as one room of great fluidity and enabling different levels of intimacy and opaqueness.
