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Casa NOA

White rear façade of Casa NOA with a timber porch open to the garden and a ribbon of timber windows above.

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Casa NOA

Casa NOA is located in a central street of a village where detached single-family houses predominate. The clients asked us for a house with a very large program, around 400sqm, which would have a high thermal efficiency and a direct link with the garden. The challenge was to solve the relationship between a very large built volume and an interior garden of a more domestic and human scale.

Double-height entrance hall with white walls, timber ceiling, a white staircase and a plywood niche with shelves.
Corridor of Casa NOA with a timber ceiling, white walls and a niche, opening toward the garden beyond.

To achieve our objectives we decided to work on two strategies. On the one hand, we placed the house as close to the street as possible, on the north side, in order to generate a large garden located south of the plot. On the other hand, we worked with different strips that divide the main volume and limit its visual impact.

Furnished ground floor plan of Casa NOA with rooms arranged around the interior garden.Upper floor plan with the bedrooms and the central staircase of the house.Elevation of Casa NOA showing the sawtooth roof profile of its pitched volumes.

We have two types of strips, the external ones and the internal ones. All of them work autonomously in terms of their dimensions and they are separated from each other to avoid creating a compact and uniform volume. The exterior strips are porches created from horizontal platforms and are formed by decks finished in wood with a direct relationship with the garden. They are more domestic spaces on a human scale.

Staircase with white treads, a timber handrail and an exposed timber-beam ceiling lit from above.
White space with a timber ceiling and skylight bringing overhead light, and a yellow sculpture on a ledge.

On the other hand, the interior space of the NOA house is organized around four vertical volumes that create a series of “sawtooth” shaped roofs. This set of roofs is one of the essential elements of the project, since its shape creates south-facing skylights linked to double spaces. In this way, we get the solar radiation necessary to ensure interior comfort and, at the same time, we bring natural light into the interior of the first floor.

Façade detail of Casa NOA with dark grey render, sawtooth roofline, small windows and a birch in the gravel courtyard.
Dark-render volumes with a sawtooth roofline and lit openings at dusk over the gravel courtyard.
White main façade of Casa NOA with a timber carport, a ribbon of timber windows and a pine at the entrance.

Unlike the slender and light wooden porches, the different volumes of the building are compact with an exterior finish of SATE. This finish allows us to generate an envelope (facades and roofs) with high thermal resistance. To emphasize the roof's profile, we decided that the side facades should have a gray and textured finish, while the facades on the opposite side have a smooth white finish.

Living-dining room with a timber-joist ceiling, a timber wall with fireplace and firewood, and sliding doors open to the garden.

The construction of the building uses a fairly simple system. The load-bearing walls that limit the different areas are ceramic walls that support a floor slab formed by a radiant floor, a technical passage of facilities and exposed wooden joists. This slab allows us to generate a warm atmosphere inside. The underfloor heating helps to obtain inertia, complementing the passive comfort system designed.

Project
Casa NOA
Year
2018
Location
Vallès Occidental
Programme
Single-family house
Area
400 m2
Authors
Josep Ma. Alventosa, Marc Alventosa, Xavier Morell
Photographer
Adrià Goula, Eugeni Pons (portada)
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