Permeable living

© Sebastian Crespo

Architects: Arquitectura X

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Architects In Charge: Adrian Moreno, María Samaniego, María José Crespo, Juan Pablo Freire, Jorge Durán, Eva Setz

Structural Engineer: Juan Carlos Garcés

Client: SMC + EDECONSA

Area: 9890.0 m2

Project Year: 2016

Photographs: Sebastian Crespo

Construction: SMC Shubert Martínez Construcciones, EDECONSA Ecuatoriana de Construcciones S.A. Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Sebastián Martínez

Electrical Engineering: OCTANS

Sanitary Engineering: INSTALHID

Mechanical Engineering: ECOAIRE

© Sebastian Crespo
Permeable livingThis building proposes a possible answer to reconcile market interests with the necessity for architecture to be the tool for place making in a city, relying on permeability at all levels:

© Sebastian Crespo

Section

© Sebastian Crespo

We fragment the possible building mass, creating two main courtyards, one at the back to provide an inner facade and garden, one towards the contained cul-de-sac; we then fragment the building in section to achieve elevated double height terrace-courtyards overlapping each other. 

© Sebastian Crespo

Both actions break up the border between building and city

Axonometric

The normally hermetic volume of a series of stacked apartmen...