Floating Building

Floating Building was designed as a container for the intended program and also for unexpected, indeterminate uses.

The scheme drawn up by the Madrid firm Ayllón Paradela de Andrés showed a container of multiple overlapping scenarios. Use adaptability over time was key. It envisioned a basic dwelling where server elements were reduced to the minimum in favor of free, open, flexible served spaces. In essence, the objective was to maximize opportunities to accommodate multiple and different uses, so that the residents would be able to live as they chose, undictated by the building.

To subtly blend into the neighborhood and address the environment, the house uses the traditional materials that predominate in the area’s buildings, but on a contemporary note. It rises in a way that frees up the ground level and forms an intermediate space for the entry, a large threshold that is part of the courtyard into which the entire site has been turned. The domestic space is inside a ‘floating volume’ and the basement is a workplace beside a generous English courtyard.