We were commissioned to design a house for a couple in an urban lot of scarcely 150 square meters located in a neglected area of the privileged sector of Condado in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The couple intended the house to be a secondary residence in order to balance their medical practice between San Juan and the municipality of Humacao, which is an hour away by car, where their primary residence is located. At first, the project presented some pragmatic challenges: the client required approximately 4,000 square feet of space from such a limited lot, while special zoning restrictions also applied for this sector. Also, the scale impact of the house in the urban fabric became an immediate concern. However, the four stories suggested by the program were not unusual in the immediate context. Given the neglected condition of this block, privacy and security were one of the primary issues on this commission. But, once inside the house, privacy was secondary to the open and immediate tropical environment that surrounded the house. With this in mind, visual communication between floors and natural light were of outmost importance in our architectural approach, given no openings were allowed at party walls.
