Casa del Atrio by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

Almost everything that goes on inside this house in Valencia by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos is on show to visitors though a transparent glass facade (+ slideshow).

The L-shaped house is entitled Casa del Atrio, or Atrium House, in reference to the glazed elevation and skylight that bring light into the eastern wing.

A large living/dining room occupies this space and offers residents a view out over the landscape of the Sierra Calderona.

A basement floor is buried just beneath, but emerges on the southern facade to reveal a bedroom, study and gym that open out to a sunken terrace.

Two more bedrooms are located in the northern wing of the ground floor and are screened behind partitions for privacy.

We also recently featured another house by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos: a wedge-shaped building that thrusts out from a rock face.

Photography is by Fernando Alda.

Here's a project description from Fran Silvestre Arquitectos:

Casa Del Atrio / Atrium House

Godella, Valencia

A house in a urban area parts of the desire to maximize the feeling of spaciousness.

Two strategies are used. The principal is to release the largest possible in the middle of the site allowing you to enjoy a private space with a height and volume incalculable. It enhances the perimeter of contact with the outside housing, land and housing understood as a continuum. On the other hand uses the existing slope to the ravine next to illuminate the basement, which enables you to host the program.

The building is developed along the southern and western boundaries of the parcel, which together with the elements of urbanization of the site, form a kind of atrium, whose diagonal flight to a distant vision of the Sierra Calderona.

Access is accompanied by the south facade to find the point of intersection. At this point of view inside the distributor is located next to the stairs and the kitchen form the backbone of the operation of housing.