Type: Single Family House
Location: Cumbaya, Ecuador
Area: 600 sqm
Date: 2018
Status: Built
Client: Private
Roca House is a 4,800 square foot private residence located in Quito, Ecuador with a street-facing facade that appears almost as a concrete monolith for privacy and the facade on the back garden of the house that is light, airy, and open. With concrete sided hugging the back of the house, the whole structure is designed to feel sculptural and cozy, offering privacy and protection from the outside and a feeling of openness, space, and freedom on the interior.
The X bedroom, X bathroom house is a study in materiality - especially concrete, wood, and glass - each employed to maximize climate control, aesthetics, and flow. The concrete walls are textured with the imprints of the wooden boards used to form them, a technique that has become increasingly popular in South America. Escudero explored the maximum
plasticity of concrete in this project with a concrete waffle ceiling and elements of the walls structure left exposed, complemented by simple finishes like white-painted walls, wood and an abundance of planting.
On the ground floor, the architecture studio chose a matching tone of wood for the cabinets and dining table in the kitchen, which is set next to the open-plan living and dining area - the main social area for the family. Another bedroom is set on the other side. Among the main elements is the curved dark wooden staircase that leads up to a wooden "bridge" on the first floor, which connects the master bedroom wing from the other bedrooms on the other side.