Lint House by Palafito Arquitectura in Chía, Colombia

Project: Lint House Architects: Palafito Arquitectura Location: Chía, Colombia Area: 5,812 sq ft Year: 2020 Photography: Santiago Bom

Lint House by Palafito Arquitectura in Chía, Colombia

The Lint House by Palafito Arquitectura in Chía, Colombia, is a winner of the national architecture biennial and integrates an extensive program into the landscape. The house was built as a monolithic roof supported by eight columns, with a design inspired by the nearby gardens and stone ruins. The massive rectangular structure has voids for natural lighting, while the main beams form a lintel. The self-leveling concrete with shrinkage control was carefully tested and adjusted for color. Joints were eliminated by pouring the roof and suspended beams in one day. The result is a seamless and impressive residence.

Winner of the national architecture biennial in Colombia, this house sits on a flat suburban lot with little interest and limited views. The Lint House proposes creating a 'landscape' that conceals an extensive program of six bedrooms with bathrooms and offices. The challenge: how to hide such a large program and integrate it into the landscape?

The Lint House was designed considering the nearby garden. The enriched landscape is formed from dunes created using soil from the same plot, which connects and integrates with some original volumes of rustic stone, like ruins on which the house is built.

The client, a concrete expert, contributed significantly to the technical design. The house represents a monolithic roof; one pour without joints. A large rectangle full of voids. One single mass supported only by 8 columns. It works as a lightweight slab outside scale; giant cascades now compose each living space. Using this structure, the main beams hang and form a lintel.

The color search was conducted in the central concrete laboratory, where more than 3 types of sand and 16 pigment combinations were tested, with proportions adjusted to the second decimal place until the desired tone was achieved. The concrete used matched self-leveling concrete with shrinkage control, including macro synthetic fibers to minimize cracking (4 kg/m3). Additionally, the concrete included an antifoam additive to reduce bubble formation on the surface. The roof and suspended beams were poured in one day, aiming to eliminate construction joints.

-Palafito Arquitectura