15
Sculptural home with clean lines in Madrid
This detached house in Madrid, Spain is defined as “a sculptural set of clean lines and perfect volumes”, designed by studio A-Cero with the architect Joaquín Torres to head. Seen from the outside, a concrete facade defines the building as a series of simple geometric shapes. The slope of the plot has served to design a building spread out onto two floors: the basement, which has a spa, wine cellar and service area, and a main floor where the life of the house is centered around and where the entrance is accessed from. The home is divided into the public spaces, the living room, dining room, kitchen and office areas, and the more private bedroom areas and a series of outdoor areas and porches that open to the pool.
In the interior spaces, every wall and every detail reflect the care and studied work behind the joint inspiration of A-Cero and interior design studio Cosmic Group, represented by Belen Domecq team. The materials were selected for their high quality and simplicity, as well as for their elegance and sobriety. The flooring is decorated with oak wood by Detarima, including the kitchen and bathroom. With its dark tone, in contrast to the whiteness of the walls marks a chromatic duality that will become a constant in all the living spaces.
Gray, wenge and chocolate stand out against the white and adds warmth and comfort to the spaces, enhanced by furnishings designed and made mostly for any occasion. Furniture and details continue to be governed by the same tones and equal desire for simplicity and functionality, which contributes to focus attention on one of the large construction claims: the outside. The highlights are a succession of porches and a spectacular pergola under which a chill out zone overlooking the pool has been installed. The large windows also pay homage to the outdoor spaces and allow an almost constant contemplation of the garden.
18
Ultra-modern Andalusia beach home
The owners sought out a home for the holidays wishing for a large garden and swimming pool to enjoy with their children in Andalusia. They had a very clear vision of what they wanted something different from the typical beach cottage, which is why they came into contact with architecture studio A-Cero. The single-family home is a contemporary sculpture of cubic and angular forms. Its two heights maintain a fluid dialogue with the outside landscape of Mediterranean vegetation.
The spacious ground floor features two living rooms, kitchen, dining room and home office. The second floor is comprised of a master suite with a private terrace, additional bedrooms with bathrooms and a game room. All the walls are painted white with flooring of polished marble on the inside and hammering on the outside. The majority of the furnishings and upholstery are also white. The reasoning behind this is that white goes with everything and most importantly, does not reflect the natural light, gives sensation of amplitude and creates an excellent basis to introduce pops of color to the furniture such as pillows.
There are few doors in the home, mostly open spaces, which are also open to the outside elements, with environments defined by the distribution of the furniture. In the kitchen, black Silestone countertops contrast from the stark white of the walls providing dynamism to this broad and elongated space. In the master bedroom, the views are superb thanks to the wall of glass that closes the front of the terrace. The children have a room dedicated to games and study, as well as leisure. Most of the furnishings are custom creations of A-Cero, sprinkled with turn of the century design, designer pieces and antiques: a wonderfully balanced cocktail in which every ingredient brings flavor and excitement to the whole. Via
// ]]>
5
Luxury modern property on the Mediterranean Sea
Madrid-based designers, A-cero has designed this luxurious single family home in Marbella, Spain. The property is placed on the outskirts of Puerto Banús, in one of the most famous and exclusive developments in the Sun Coast. This development is located on one side of a mountain but very close to the coast, with plenty of Mediterranean vegetation. The plot where the project is located has a notorious slope that goes down to the South from the street access. This fact would determinate the design to adapt the house to the environment and achieve excellent views of the Mediterranean Sea. The possibilities of the plot and the wishes of the property appear in the execution of this huge project.
All the rooms, both public and private, are located in the rear part of the house, with the porch, the pool, the garden and a tennis court. In this part of the house, orientated to the south, the black glass windows are bigger to connect the outside with the inside, like the big one in the living room that hides in the floor automatically. The greatest part, in architectonic terms, is the big volume over the porch where stays the main bedroom on the first floor.
The property is “dressed†with Roman transventilated travertine stone. Inside, the house has wide spaces, all of them modeled by natural light. The property is developed in three levels: the lower level is the most public space and includes the living-room, kitchen, dining room, laundry and a little service room. The first floor is the most private area and here we can find the bedrooms and a little office. The ground floor is dedicated to a relax area, with a spa, an internal pool, gym and garage. The large central courtyards that articulate the property core give light to this level of the house. Via
Visit the website of architecture firm A-cero here.
9
Sensational sculptural residence in La Finca
A-cero architecture studio has built this sensational two-storey sculptural residence in La Finca estate in the town Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Spain. This project is smaller (1000 square meters) than the rest of the buildings within this housing development. Its smaller dimensions turn it into a comfortable and practical house that invites one to enjoy it and offers the maximum quality of life. Its modern design is based on impossible angles and spectacular volumes. The facade of the house is made of travertine marble which is combined with dark grey granite in several areas, as in the vertical plane of the main facade. White has the main color scheme throughout the building, in both the interior and exterior. Furthermore, it has numerous ample windows. Both elements give to the house a lot of light and vitality. The furnishings have all been designed by A-cero with top quality materials and finishes. The house plot has a rectangular shape and a surface of 4.500 square meters. It has a direct access from a private road located in the north. In the south area is a wide garden which is joined with the urban development green spaces. Via
Visit the website of A-cero architects here.
4
Sculptural house in Madrid by A-cero
This truly spectacular house in Pozuelo, Madrid has been designed by A-cero Architects. The dwelling is enveloped by a travertine marble shell, standing out for its geometric purity, material sophistication and compositional elegance. The home is divided into two axes; the first is organized into a series of intersecting volumes which gives rise to the different interior and exterior spaces. The second axis, which is materialized in by a long structural beam, determines the relationship between the building and the spaces that surround the home. The immaculate design conception is further enhanced by the clean lines of the finishes.
The open and spacious interiors have no doors; they have been replaced by panels. The voluminous home is split onto two levels; the basement houses a uniquely designed garage, gym, a cellar, music room and indoor swimming pool. The ground floor is centered around a large cylinder structure formed of marble, which helps to organize what is developed around it, the living rooms, dining rooms and service zone joined via a staircase with an incredible red backdrop from which hangs a work of art in grand display and with the upper floor housing the bedrooms, the bathrooms finished in ash wood and the library, arranged as a great box of books, around a glass walkway overlooking the main drawing room.
From the architects: “Our aim is to deepen the connection between culture and life in a modern style, and consciously build a bridge between art and object. Our working method is directly connected to the purest tradition of minimalism, concerned not only with the nature of art but also with finding a place for art in society. Holes and empty spaces are dealt with in a neat and powerful way, using glass to close those openings. The set of bookshelves features a laminated glass structure, for a total dominance of the living room’s space. All furnishings emphasize the intrinsic characteristics of the space they are integrated into.â€
Visit the website of A-cero architects here.
Photos: Courtesy of A-cero Architects
25
Amazing sculptural house by A-Cero
The Spanish architecture firm A-cero, directed by Joaquin Torres, has built a new house in the Madrid outskirts that synthesizes the evolution of the studio’s signature design language and its technical experimentation over the last years. The house can be aesthetically inscribed in the series of projects made by the studio since its international expansion, in places like the Dominican Republic and Dubai, presenting a greater spatial complexity and use of shapes that underlines the relation between A-cero’s architecture and contemporary sculpture.
At first impression the house clearly shows its intentions, with the dominance of stylized curves and bold shapes that relate harmonically to its natural context while keeping a clearly modern character. The horizontal shapes pile up one on another, creating a stratified building that seems to emerge from the earth like a natural formation, the façades are treated with a texturized dark concrete, completing the mineral analogy. In this capacity of being at once natural in its matter and artificial in its forms, the house reminds of the work of minimalist sculptors like David Nash, or a piece of land art.
The interior contains a varied program, solved with a very complex array of spaces with different heights and levels, as well as the particular shape of some of the rooms. The lower level contains the main hall -covered by a curved ceiling that accentuates its relevance-, living and dining rooms, master bedroom, gym, interior pool, kitchen and service areas. On the upper level is located a painting studio, under a long curved ceiling, flooded with natural light and the best views over the surrounding landscape. The basement is dedicated to health and leisure, with a bar, games room, chill out, massage room, projection room, cellar and gym.
The spaces are freed of columns and other elements that would alter its fluidity and openness, light materials have been used in the interior design to improve this aspect. The floors are covered with large format white ceramic tiles and the bathrooms are finished in white aluminum.
22
Unbelievable concrete home in Madrid
The architecture studio A-cero presents one of its latest works, an enormous single-family house. It is situated in the outskirts of Madrid, Spain on a 5,000 square meters plot. It is a single storey building and it has 17,222 square feet (1,600 square meters) of built surface.
The first sensation that this house produces when people go into the plot is that the building seems to be hidden between concrete walls and vegetated ramps that extend up to the roof. They are dyed in dark gray and contain, between them, vegetation areas that seem to climb towards the sky. The house’s facade demonstrates a spectacular organic view of the entire house and so even the hard concrete shows its most kind face.
The back front of the house is completely open towards the garden where the lounge, dining room, library, study and bedrooms are located. In this facade the wide windows, the volumes and the projections are made of concrete to enhance. These elements cover several home’s porches. The large window of the main lounge hides itself automatically in order to make this space completely open to the exterior areas.
The plot includes also an elegant garden, a small lake and a padel track. The ecological aspect is very predominant in this particular A-cero project: the facade and the roof have the main ecological roles because they are covered with low consuming vegetation. Furthermore, on the roof of the home, there is an implementation of a renewable energy system made of wide surfaces with solar tubular collectors which enables the energy autonomy of the house. Via
Photos: Luis H. Segovia
17
Modern sculptural home in Spain
Spanish architects A-cero have completed the Open Box House house in Madrid, Spain. The three storey home is 8,073 square foot (750 square meters), designed according to the A-cero sculptural philosophy. This is inspired in the “Oteiza” work, a very important Spanish sculptor. With a powerful look, Open Box is notable for its facade in concrete granulated in some face and brandering in other faces. The basement takes the garage and facilities and the ground floor has the living room, kitchen and servant’s quarter. In the first floor are the private rooms (4 bedrooms) and a library. The interior design includes furniture designed by A-cero and the Italian company Fendi. The landscaping featuring a Japanese garden has been designed by A-cero as well. As a conclusion, the residence is A-cero work in which you can see its looking for quality, comfort and design excellence. Via
30
Exotic beach house in the Dominican Republic
The prevailing warm climate of this Caribbean country along with the particular location of the project within a 7.000 m2 plot of land along the coast line, have determined the ideas that A-cero Architecture had for this luxurious residence. The massing is subdivided in two blocks, both composed of curved and straight surfaces interacting and forming dynamic spaces. The entire home is covered with a light coralline stone procured locally. The stone’s light color, and smooth texture helps in taking advantage of the Caribbean sun, as it accentuates the curvilinear attributes of the space, through light and shadows.
The house is hidden behind a walled fence which curves up from the ground. The sculptural fence is interrupted in the middle by a large wooden gate. The house is designed to make the most of the cross-ventilation, taking advantage of the cooling sea breeze. The whole house is extroverted, with big practicable large windows. The separation between the inside and the outside gets dissolved with gardens getting inserted inside the house. The external Coralline stone is brought inside, offering a visual continuity throughout the project. The furniture was also designed by A-cero and custom-built to measurement, and conceived to bestow certain simplicity inside the big interior spaces.
Photos: Fernando Manosalvas
