Casa 3 La Calera 2013 - Yemail Arquitectura

Project Details

House 3 La Calera 2013

DESCRIPTION

The project proposes the extension of a rural house in the upper area of La Calera, within a landscape defined by canyons, rocky outcrops, and steep slopes. The original house, built in the 1980s, already contained a highly particular material exploration: reused railway components, exposed blockwork, large windows, and an almost industrial character opening toward the landscape.

The intervention begins with that material memory and amplifies it. Rather than erasing the existing house, it continues its logic: working with available components, embracing the hybrid nature of its materials, and extending a productive domesticity linked to the spirit of its inhabitant. The house thus becomes a system of rooms, workshops, terraces, circulation paths, and flexible spaces capable of accommodating family, guests, work, and everyday production.

The new extension shifts along the topography. An apartment moves across the terrain and explores a more expressive material language, incorporating exposed metal sheeting, vivid colors, and cylindrical elements containing fixed cores and vertical connections. These elements provide access to terraces, resolve changes in level, and establish a more dynamic relationship between the house, the ground, and the landscape.

A second volume, partially embedded in the terrain, contains a workshop and a small office. Its planted roof mediates between the original house and the new extension, functioning as an intermediate plane, terrace, and continuation of the ground. Perimeter circulation connects the different blocks and allows the project to be experienced as a sequence of elements that rest on, embed themselves within, and terrace across the site.

The material palette combines reused steel structures, trusses, exposed clay block, metal sheets, and second-hand components. The project works through the assembly of materials from different origins and periods, understanding the extension as a form of continuity rather than an isolated addition.

DETAILS

Use

Extension of rural housing

Area

160 m²

Location

La Calera, Cundinamarca – Colombia

Meters above the sea level

2746

Average annual temperature

11.5 °C

Year

2013

Design

Yemail Architecture (Oficina Informal)

Construction

Yemail Architecture (Oficina Informal) + Wilman Chaparro (Master Builder)

Project team

Antonio Yemail + Juan Pablo Gaitán + Daniella Robledo

Structural design

Mauricio Velázquez

Photo Credits

Santiago Pinyol (Exterior) + Revista Habitar (Interior)

Categories: Housing