Monte Nacho Housing

The complex consists of 127 officially protected houses, of which 41 are single-family and the remainder distributed in six tower blocks, each of them fixed firmly in the old excavations of the quarry. Due to the strong topography and the rocky structure of the terrain, the single-family houses attempt to “scratch” the ground as little as possible, the rock being thereby introduced inside the dwelling, and the latter into the little pits of the pre-existing quarry. In order to protect itself from the wind, the concept of a “niche house” makes its appearance: the house cannot present its facade directly to the wind, but should construct its own barrier, instead, without ceasing to relate to the exterior. The resulting open space is as important as the space that is occupied. There is al so the “reversible house”: a type of housing in which the position of its components can be interchanged, depending on the views: towards the Mediterranean or towards the Atlantic. On the other hand, and due to the topography of the terrain and to the rationality of the types proposed, we have thought of setting out the entrances as is fitting (upper or lower), although generally speaking one accedes to almost all the single-family houses from the street via the first floor, in which are situated the lounge, kitchen and terrace. The project’s six towers emerge from the cluster of houses described above. The sum total in vertical terms of the functional packages-a package of bedrooms and of a kitchen and lounge-that adapt to the single-family houses are not in vain; packages freely set out on the ground plane, making for spatial diagonals towards the exterior that seek to capture the landscape of the Straits of Gibraltar. The direct action of the wind and the damp climate oblige the relationship of the house to the outside to be established through an intermediary, open-air space (also conceived as a functional package) that, without sticking out from the vertical plane of the tower, is excavated in the latter and acts as a form of ventilation and lighting for the entire house.