150. White House

As a volume like a ship's bridge overlooking the green sea of the area's tall trees, the house is built to take full advantage of the property structure. This small plot in a neighbourhood in the northwest of Madrid sits between imposing blocks of townhouses.

Four square volumes aligned in plan generate an abstract and flexible residential structure while rising vertically by stacking three floors, equivalent but different, connected by a spiral staircase.

The owners' needs evolved over time as the design was being developed and as the house was being built. Thus, what were initially spaces without a clear definition, capable of hosting any type of domestic programme, have taken on different uses and different names in keeping with the changing spatial needs of a growing family.

The ground floor houses the day areas: a kitchen, which serves as a gathering place, along with a spacious living room, plus a small foyer. The limits of this foyer, qualified by the spiral structure of the metal staircase, are dissolved into the adjacent rooms, an indication of what happens on the upper floors.

The enclosed space between the building and the edges of the site is transformed on each of the sides to host various functions: a narrow space for a car, a linear entrance path, a gathering space next to a pool surrounded by greenery, a secluded eating area amid a line of trees, etc. These perimeter spaces are all connected visually with the interior of the ground floor rooms, which expands their reach out toward the edges of the property.