JI House / Sergio Sebastián arquitecto

Architect: Sergio Sebastián arquitecto
Location: Leciñena, Spain
Architects In Charge: Sergio Sebastián Franco
Design Team: Pilar Villuendas, Victoria González, Ivan P.Martín, Alejandro Alda, Giorgio Bernardi
Area: 247.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Irene Ruiz Bazán

Technical Architect: Pablo Sebastián Franco
Construction: ATC Constructora
Structural Calculation: Manrique&Matute

Text description provided by the architects. House JI’ is a reinterpretation of a traditional housing model in Leciñena, a small village in the heart of Monegros desert. Behind the walls is a village inside a village.

A house like so many others sunken in the terrain, hidden between tall white walls finished with tile, protected from the dust and wind with rough resistant rendering and brimming with life in the interior patios. Its relationship with the paths and streets that surround it is facilitated by large wooden gates.

Every function of the house itself, and space  of each resident, associated in a constructive and composite way with a house. Seen in their original or archetypal context, with a gabled roof, the powerful presence of the space connecting them to the exterior with a simple, almost rudimentary construction, the houses host the different rooms.

Enveloping these little houses is a communal space that links them, inside and outside. Inside, these ‘streets’ and ‘squares’ host the shared living spaces—such as a living room, hall, play room— in a single construction.