Eneseis Arquitectura has completed a single housing development project in Alicante, Spain. When they started designing the home, the lot was flat and had little privacy from the surrounding homes. They dug into the lot, created a trench and built the home into the new hillside.
This single housing development project connects the public street with a 40m narrow pass. By doing this the building is surrounded on every side, but on the northwest side it opens to a tree zone and to a beautiful mountain view. The building opens itself towards the mountain view, and closes itself, looking for its own privacy against the surrounding buildings.
All the dirt was kept on-site and piled up on the perimeter to increase the elevation difference, as the designers didn’t want to waste any gas to take the dirt away. Incidentally, placing a home into a hillside is an excellent way to moderate temperature swings in a home. This solar passive design technique helps a home stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
