Zonas de Caracas

SG-35

In the early sixties, the growing development of «El Cafetal» promotes the connection between the nervy hills, valleys and mountains, such as the «Alto Hatillo» (The High Hatillo), a zone privileged by a beautiful but difficult to access nature that acts as the main obstacle to building. Here, in the city´s outskirts, Alcock decides to purchase a lot viewing El Ávila, with inclinations ranging from 35 to 60 degrees, in which the exuberant vegetation and fresh temperatures reign. Being his first home, it required austerity and compactness. He projects an industrialized object, raised to the level of the trees’ cups and connected by bridges, implanted far from the street warranting privacy, and near a brook to avoid heavy dirt movements. The cubic element is supported by four columns that provide a feeling of weightlessness. The hip roof clad in tiles is supported on steel trusses, which show the welds, casts and molds (low budget finishes with an artisanal character that point to a resourceful economy). The house, conceptualized as a raised terrace with a vertical patio whose interior atmosphere is quite particular, is connected to the lower level by a spiral ladder. Encircled by a narrow balcony-hallway open to the landscape, the house melds with the bucolic woods becoming part of the scenery.