A low budget is a terrible reason to give up on having a dream home, but Mrs. Paz and her husband didn't have to. Limited by their budget and a seemingly awkward lot 70km outside of Madrid, the couple commissioned
Architect Arturo Franco to dare the impossible. The most important thing for the firm was to give the couple, who live in an otherwise heterogenous
housing development built in the 1960s, an inspiring perspective of the surrounding mountains and valley. To achieve this, they suspended the home over the edge of a sheer cliff.
The team was limited by finances and materials, so they decided to use a metal-frame (which looks like a shipping container) that was stacked on top of large concrete pillars. To keep costs low, only local trade professionals were consulted, none of whom were familiar with this particular structural challenge.
But they succeeded all the same. The Casa Paz was pre-erected and then slid on site using a track comprised of beams, since the only crane available could not drop the building 5.5m over the 1,400 square meter high cliff. Cutouts give the owners the view of a lifetime, beam in daylight, and circulate air through what might otherwise be a fairly warm house.
+ Arturo Franco
Via Architizer
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