Theatrics of Refuge
Paola Ricco y Marco Brizzi
Italy, June 30 2015
Architecture Player
A break from the activity of city life in bustling
Monterrey, Mexico, Casa de Uno transports the viewer into a series of isolated
natural occurrences where nature plays the protagonist on a stage of minimal
architectural elements. Juan Benavides of Filmatica captures the intimate
moments that arise out of the careful isolation of organic life and
architecture in this interpretation of the home as a place of refuge and
reflection designed by Dear Architects in 2009.
We begin our discovery of the residence as we are
initially confronted by a large geometric mass relieved by minimal incisions.
We cut to a slight outpour of vegetation hinting at the home's interior
character. The transition from public into private is experienced in phases as
we move from the guarding barrier and through a black steel door into a narrow
concrete paved patio. The narrow breathing space between the barrier and the
dwelling ends at the point of encounter between home and nature. Natural light
is reflected from the white walls into the interior spaces above a vegetated
ground. The observance of growing grass and a changing sky become important
elements of the everyday life. Connecting hallways project the passage of time,
further relating the temporal to the built environment. Light becomes the
principle storyteller in the transitional spaces.
The transition between spaces become theatres of
natural spectacle. The compression that occurs in the common meeting spaces
provides a protective intimacy that is dramatized by the permeable perimeter.
Benavides composes a series of moments in which architecture becomes a backdrop
to various natural phenomena. In creating these moments of isolation, one can
understand the growth of a tree, the movement of the sun, and the imprints of
the rain.
This is the first short film in a series directed by
Juan Benavides of Filmática which includes the documentation of 12 houses
designed by up and coming Mexican architects throughout various cities in
Mexico.