Pablo Vallejo builds Casa Llona within the tropical panorama of Ecuador
Positioned within the mountainous area of Pichincha in Ecuador, Casa Llona was designed by Pablo Vallejo and David Ribadeneira to adapt to the opposed weather conditions of the area. Surrounded by lush tropical biodiversity and threatened by heavy rains and excessive humidity, the construction makes use of metal and wooden to create a sustainable cabin with a minimal carbon footprint. The dwelling has a permeable character with a singular climatic conduct that permits the air to passive they dissipate via openings within the decrease and higher partitions. The result’s a cushty residing atmosphere each typically and ecologically, permitting residents to completely get pleasure from on a regular basis life.
Casa Llona settles within the Pichincha mountainous area of Ecuador | all photos courtesy of JAG Studio
a light-weight but sturdy cabin
Casa Llona is discovered in the midst of the cloud forest of the tropical mountains of Chocó, a habitat positioned in a hostile atmosphere characterised by tough climatic and geographical circumstances and pure threats.
With this in thoughts, Pablo Vallejo and David Ribadeneira selected a palette of materiality that takes benefit of business components comparable to metal to create a sturdy construction that ensures an optimum steadiness between person consolation and the atmosphere. Likewise, the architect selected supplies that don’t require ending or fixed upkeep. Plywood is used for its structural and useful properties, whereas plaster and cardboard partitions type a light-weight, but robust and sturdy cabin. The goal is to attain a low carbon footprint with a development that doesn’t eat a lot water and doesn’t generate waste, with out resorting to exterior formwork or infills, and which compares favorably with different forms of development comparable to industrialized timber buildings or rustic timber .
plaster and cardboard partitions type a light-weight however robust and sturdy cabin
the significance of the porch in Casa Llona
The pure adversity of the area suggests appropriate lifestyle in it’s potential provided that the home balances the insulation of inside actions towards humidity and tropical threats, particularly bugs. Nevertheless, this isolation should create a time period to be outside, with out sophisticated spatial mechanisms, however slightly utilizing confirmed methods such because the porch. The porch, whose conventional local weather technique was developed within the Mediterranean area for a “hot-dry” local weather, is utilized in Ecuador to create transitional areas, primarily between the private and non-private spheres.
In Casa Llona, the veranda has the identical goal: to create consolation and environmental pleasure. Its spatial use is historically utilized as a single-story cantilever that creates a shaded house on the facade to which it’s hooked up. On this undertaking, the cantilever was modified to work with the general roof, making a double-height porch that additionally protects the home. It retains the rain away from the glass facade, whereas permitting the home’s full lighting to go via, an essential measure in a local weather the place fog usually units in.
the roof protects the home by maintaining the rain away from the glass facade, whereas permitting the home to be illuminated
attaining interior consolation
The local weather technique of the inside is given by the continuity of the inside air quantity. The bedrooms should not enclosed by partitions. Subsequently, the higher strip stays open, in order that the air inside can be passively renewed via openings within the decrease and higher partitions. As well as, the home has a really excessive thermal insulation. That is partly as a result of the truth that the housing consists of a floating ground slab, which permits soil moisture to flow into. This blocks capillarity, which is accompanied by a floating base piece that additionally helps the sting of the partitions, that are made from three layers of plaster, cardboard (inside) and fiber cement (exterior).
‘We have now to do not forget that the issue inside isn’t the chilly, however the humidity that dissipates via cross-ventilation, which is achieved via wall openings and the alternative of home windows and doorways. A technique that doesn’t use any mechanical or electrical mechanism to switch the air.’ clarify the architects.
the construction permits air to passively dissipate via openings within the decrease and higher partitions