Architect Adriá Noboa has designed the renovation and extension of a beach house, located on a hillside overlooking the sea and bay of Ancón, a district north of Lima, Peru.
The architect’s description
The clients are the third-generation owners of the property, and their purpose was to rescue and revalue their grandparents’ original housing project.
This house was originally designed in 1958 by Swiss Architect Theodor Cron, whose architectural production has become a referent in modern Peruvian architecture.
The original design proposes a language with sharply horizontal elements, configuring spaces of simple heights but achieving a fluid spatial continuity between the inside and outside, using for this purpose, subtle height transitions, low parapets, and prolonged horizontal and vertical planes.
This compositional proposal manages to correctly control visual cues toward the bay from the different spaces inside the house. The materials reflect this spatial relationships, covering some walls with natural stone obtained from the hill excavations necessary for building the house.
This new proposal intended to respect the qualities of the original project and was considered mandatory a pre-design review of the original blueprints and the documentation about the life work of Architect Theodor Cron, to understand the best possible way to work with the existing building.
The proposal starts by liberating the edification from all extensions and modifications not found in the original design and then consolidate the original proposal rescuing its defining essential elements.
The remodeling focused on the creation of service areas according to new systems, hardware, and requirements of the clients, as well as on the modernization of the finishes, giving a special consideration to the use of neutral materials without overshadowing the original ones.
The extension was defined according to the requirements of the clients for new social and recreational spaces for their different weekend activities. The additional program comprises a new terrace for the bedrooms level, and a new swimming pool and terrace. Thus, a new third and fourth levels for complementary and technical services were created.
The design follows the guideline set by the original project, using low wall hangings on the terraces and prolonged horizontal surfaces, but reimagining and adapting them to the profile in the perimeters of the plot, as well to the palm and other trees line of the surroundings. The composition language is reinforced through the use of natural stone from the same area instead of regular wall coverings.
In the private areas of the house, the character of closed spaces was reinforced, using vanes of a smaller dimension and new wooden shutters to control the views from the exterior. Unlike the panoramic views of the social area, the views from the bedrooms were directed to specific points of the bay.
