Solo Bilbao is located on the site occupying a former agricultural plateau. Extended between a lush hill and almost-bare ravine, the terrain opens up to the dense evergreen landscape. While the topography is predominantly flat with few slopes, a longitudinal step divides the plateau.
Solo Bilbao is a promenade. The program and volumes branch out in every direction in an effort to embrace and value each view and every detail. One’s progression through the landscape reveals three levels of experience: first, the ground level of Solo Bilbao engages in a direct dialogue with the site. From there, occupants are guided upward, taking in the stunning openness of the surrounding valley while being able to admire the house within its context.
Solo Bilbao is composed of twenty-three identically dimensioned cubes, spread out over the site allowing for greater flexibility and practicality to the inhabitant(s). Each one is carved out in a unique way to create openings but also to fashion the interior spaces, thus creating specific environments for every program.
The center of the house is the kitchen. It is the point of gathering, the welcoming place any time of the day. From it stem the common rooms – dining, living, library, and bar. As you walk through these spaces and progress through courtyards, you find the more private spaces – bedrooms, reading rooms and bathrooms. In this sense, everybody meets at the center and can find privacy in the isolated spaces at the tip of the branches.
The interstitial spaces connecting the cubes are lightly designed outdoor slabs and stairs which not only guide the inhabitant through the pathway, but also become platforms for interior programs inherent to the cubes to spill out, mix and allow for new programs to be invented and added to the experience.
Beyond the 23 cubes and interstitial platforms composing the promenade house, a few cubes appear in unoccupied areas of the site. Un-programmed except for a swimming pool, they become ruins in direct dialogue with the existing stone house and entice the users to walk around, get lost and contemplate.
