House on a Slope by El Sindicato Arquitectura in Cumbaya, Ecuador

Project: House on a Slope
Architects: El Sindicato Arquitectura
Location: Cumbaya, Ecuador
Area: 2,153 sq ft
Year: 2021
Photographs by: Andrés Vilotta

House on a Slope by El Sindicato Arquitectura

El Sindicato Arquitectura designed a house on a slope in Cumbaya, Ecuador. As you might expect from the title, this residence is situated on a slope—always a challenge but offering more opportunities for stunning views.

"Casa en Pendiente" is a home that seeks to use one architectural element to satisfy the diverse needs of its varied users; a family consisting of parents and two daughters with high demands for independence and privacy.

As a conceptual strategy, the required spaces were defined as highly separated in response to the need for independence between them. The placement of each space was determined by situating compatible spaces next to one another according to the family's routine. It was decided that all spaces would be connected only by a path, which solves the issues of steep slopes at ground level.

Separating spaces and placing them at ground level provide users with magnificent views of the Illin volcano and its surroundings; this also allowed us to create intermediate gardens that let users see without being seen, and maintain a physical or visual connection with the nearest external space.

As a functional strategy, the project was divided into three main levels:
The upper level, located near the garage and entrance, contains the living room, dining area, and public restroom. The gardens adjacent to this block are designed for outdoor social events; thus they are at the same level as the interior spaces. Due to the differences in levels throughout the complex and spatial separation, access is provided from the upper block's garden to the intermediate block's terrace.

The intermediate block features a kitchen, considered the heart of the project since it is where the family gathers for cooking, meals, work, and shared time. The outdoor part of the kitchen is intended for a vegetable garden, a place to interact with pets, and as an external connection to the natural level of existing ground. In the same block, with minimal elevation difference from the kitchen, is the parents' bedroom, where visual contact with the immediate garden is maintained only visually, emphasizing landscape views.

Finally, in the lower block are the bedrooms of the two daughters. Both volumes have identical sizes but are resolved differently depending on their individual lifestyles. The first prioritizes contact with the outside space, featuring a balcony at the front of the block; while the second prioritizes storage and self-care, thus including a large closet at the back of the block.

The path connecting these three blocks becomes a stairway corridor that repeats on the roof to allow access to all terraces of the project, providing multiple outdoor spaces.

As a structural strategy, all side walls of the project (east-west) function as privacy elements and thermal mass. Therefore, reinforced brick walls with a 5 cm cavity are proposed. In this system, the role of bricks is to reduce fragility that a 5 cm thick concrete wall element would have, and they also serve as formwork and exterior finish, sometimes even interior.

–El Sindicato Arquitectura