El corazón de este edificio es la membrana de una pulgada que unifica en el plano horizontal, trabajando como una red, en todos los sentidos. / The heart of this building is the inch thick membrane that unifies the horizontal plane, working as a web, in every direction.
Al frente del patio se encuentra un altillo, a 1,5 m sobre la galería, que es también el techo de los dormitorios. / Opposite the courtyard is a loft 1.5 m above the gallery, which is also the ceiling of the bedrooms.
this principle. Its material is a skin sensitive to the requirements of the spaces it covers showing it has no obverse or reverse side. It has no facades; elevations are sections that leave the inside exposed. Its structure is always visible. A critic would say, it joins geometric shapes with organic shapes. The author would say, to each organ its own function. And the engineer, its forms respond to the requirements on every plane of its space. As a structural work it becomes an example of this truth: resistance does not arise from the hardness of the material but from the form (and moments of inertia). To help see the conception of this body, the closest would be to use an analogy with the work of the potter: a vessel of clay. The potter's fingers slide inside and outside in a continuous surface thinning a sheet of equal thickness in all directions. The distributed load of its closed shape generates the pot’s resistance. The heart of this building is the inch thick membrane that unifies the horizontal plane, working as a web, in every direction, a task that will not submit to
calculation. It needs to be experienced, or rather, intuited. The work of these forms must be felt with the body. Living in a certain harmony with the space we live within them. Now is a good time to remember what Matisse said about a painting: “My goal is to translate my emotion. The objects that surround me and re-act in me create this state of mind: from the horizon to myself, including myself. Because I often introduce myself in the picture and I have awareness of what is behind me.” Observing this volume from the outside, in all its nakedness it clearly reveals its slender, high beams without any transverse structure. It’s true; there is no transverse structure between the major beams. Nor is there any sort of bracing to the ground or diagonal struts. It is only what you see. The membrane possesses the unity of the whole system. It works as a metal sheet, like the surface of a car body, with slight curvatures. In this case, with strong curvatures. It is not the material which resists but the FORM.
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