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Las Lomas House Suggests a Public Space Appropriated for Private Use

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Estudio Ramos brutal ‘Las Lomas House’ evokes public works like a dam or a freeway.

The home is designed almost as if the architects had appropriated a public freeway for private use. Yet the anonymous structure, set amidst a dense foliage of aged trees and slabs of concrete holding green vegetation is a private residence.

It’s uncompromising and strong reliance on exposed concrete evokes the durability and permanence of stone, and the impersonality of a water treatment plant. No views within are afforded from the exterior.

In a manner suggesting a freeway in ruins, greenery seems to happen haphazardly among the concrete slabs.

Usually, a home is designed as shelter, keeping civic life at bay, but this design allows the forlorn and familiar elements of public life, like concrete overpasses and the weeds that sprout near abandoned freeways, into the private life of its inhabitants.

By contrast to the public side, the private side is almost all glass, and surrounds a central focal point, the pool. The many flat roofs support green roofs.

And evidence of life lived within: a stern kitchen exists inside. The 20 year old Argentinian architectural practice, based in Buenos Aires has built more than 300 residential and commercial projects.

Source: e-architect