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Casa ACAP

Casa ACAP in Das, with timber cladding, a stone base and a covered porch on timber columns.

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Casa ACAP

The commission involved designing a single-family house on a small, sloping plot in Baixa Cerdanya. Casa GE captures the spectacular mountain views to the north while allowing light to enter from the south to guarantee visual and thermal comfort to all the spaces in the house.

Interior with large sliding windows, a timber ceiling and cantilevered stairs by the dining area.
Living room with a light sofa, a timber-beamed ceiling and a picture window onto the trees.

The project is located in Das, a small village in the Pyrenees with open views of the Tosa de Alp Mountain. The clients, a young family with children, asked us to design a house where they could retreat from the city to rest and enjoy the natural surroundings. They imagined a house well connected to the garden, luminous and with ample common spaces.

Double-height dining space with a timber table, black shelving and a clerestory window drawing in southern light.
Staircase with dark stone treads on a timber structure, beneath a continuous clerestory window.
Galley kitchen with black units, plywood lining and a glass door onto the garden.

Exploring the surroundings, we noticed that most of the neighbouring buildings were square-shaped houses, set on the plot in such a way as to leave the same amount of vacant space between all the sides of the plot. As a result, the gardens resulted in a succession of narrow spaces with no hierarchy. On the other hand, the rooms of these houses were grouped one behind the other, making it impossible to enjoy the views from more than two or three rooms. For these reasons, we decided to design Casa ACAP as a rectangular volume extending towards the plot's sides, freeing up space at the front and back to have two large garden areas. Moreover, arranging the rooms along a rectangular floor plan allows all the spaces to face both north and south, opening up to the views of the mountains while capturing solar radiation. The construction makes the most of the building area and is built with a light timber frame system with Llívia stone for the facade.

Site plan of Casa ACAP on a sloping plot within the village fabric.Ground floor plan of the house, with living and dining opening to the surroundings.Upper floor plan with the house's bedrooms.Cross section of the house showing the gabled roof and the semi-basement.Bioclimatic section with summer and winter sun paths, photovoltaic panels and thermal inertia.Bioclimatic section of the house: seasonal solar control and photovoltaic capture.
Corridor and washbasin beneath the sloping timber ceiling, with an oak floor and a stone basin.
Detail of oak sliding pocket doors set into the wall.

We arranged a large double-height space on the ground floor for the dining room and living room. The wooden staircase separates this area from the kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Upstairs on the north façade are all the bedrooms overlooking the mountains. A south-facing corridor connects the rooms, with a full bathroom at each end.

Casa ACAP seen through pines, with a timber façade, stone base and slatted fence, in a mountain setting.

Making full use of the permitted buildable area, the house is constructed using a lightweight timber frame system, clad with Llívia stone. The façade closes off views to the neighbours while opening the house up to the garden and the mountains.

Project
Casa ACAP
Year
2023
Location
Das
Programa
Single-family house
Area
240 m2
Authors
Marc Alventosa, Xavier Morell
Team
Júlia Marbà (architect), Diagonal Arquitectura (structure), Pere Capdevila (technical architect)
Photographer
Adrià Goula
ACAP House in Cerdanya | Bioclimatic Architecture | Alventosa Morell Arquitectes