Ecuadorian architect Juan Alberto Andrade has accomplished an extension to a rammed earth multi-family housing complicated in Guayaquil.
Referred to as El Retiro, the nine-square-meter (97-square-foot) addition doubles the shared area of a 305-square-meter (three,282-square-foot) residential complicated, setting again alongside the road and blurring the road between non-public housing and concrete land.
![El Retiro residential extension](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_7-852x568.jpg)
Following Mexican architect Lucía Martín López’s thought of the “rising home,” Juan Alberto Andrade used a housing adaptation technique that López calls “crystallographic progress”: intervening inside property boundaries and following neighborhood space and peak limits.
“The structure is a response to the continual must reinvent a habitat,” the group informed Dezeen. “Housing is an exercise, a constructed course of.”
![Residential extension with rammed earth](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_8-852x664.jpg)
Accomplished in 2022, the easy sq. addition consists of a load-bearing 30-centimeter-thick earthen wall – set on a limestone base – and bahareque masonry, which is a mix of bamboo framework and clay plaster.
Regardless of being a special coloration to the prevailing construction, the shape and materiality of the addition works to mix it into the home and neighborhood, as does the leafy panorama alongside the road.
![Communal work space](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_21-852x587.jpg)
A light-weight pine roof construction slopes from the prevailing exterior wall to the sting of the addition and is roofed by a inexperienced steel roof.
Inside, the resin flooring serves as a easy distinction to the uncooked wooden ceiling and built-in millwork.
![Resin flooring](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_10-852x1278.jpg)
A sliding iron door opens to the compact inside, which accommodates a social area, library and storage alongside the road and rises to a shared workspace within the present flooring plan.
A freestanding steel core was inserted into the middle of the plan, becoming a member of the prevailing room addition with a kitchenette and toilet.
![The tree in the center of the expansion plan](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_15-852x606.jpg)
A small planted atrium permits a 25-year-old tree to rise within the middle of the plan and light-weight to filter into the constructing.
A sq. wood window—protected by sliding steel shutters—seems throughout the road to a neighborhood park. The pivoting window body will be opened and the deep structural wall turns into a secondary workplace area.
“El Retiro is an extension and attachment undertaking from an unbiased physique to a multi-family dwelling that serves and transforms the pre-existence right into a productive habitat,” stated the group.
It was a chance to “construct particular, viable and productive options that take part in progressive housing progress and reap the benefits of the residual areas generated by Ecuador’s insurance policies.”
![Window with sliding metal shutters](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2024/01/juan-alberto-andrade-el-retiro-architecture_dezeen_2364_col_17-852x568.jpg)
Maximizing small areas is a pillar of Andrade’s observe. He beforehand designed a versatile set up for a micro-apartment in Quito and transformed a 1993 Chevy van right into a plywood “home on wheels” with María José Váscones.
Pictures is by JAG Studio.
Challenge credit:
Architect: Juan Alberto Andrade
Workforce: Cuqui Rodriguez, Maria Jose Vascones, Melissa Toasa, Victoria Peralta, Duda Rodriguez
Suppliers: Sandstone from Ecuador, Acesco, Megakywi