PERMEABLE LIVING

This building proposes a possible answer to reconcile market interests with the necessity for architecture to be the tool for place making in a city, relying on permeability at all levels: We fragment the possible building mass, creating two main courtyards, one at the back to provide an inner facade and garden, one towards the contained cul-de-sac; we then fragment the building in section to achieve elevated double height terrace-courtyards overlapping each other. Both actions break up the border between building and city. The normally hermetic volume of a series of stacked apartments with private balconies becomes a permeable open form that relates apartments to each other and to the city. The city also permeates the building at different heights taking advantage of Quito´s topography and the building is totally open at street level to the quiet residential neighborhood, changing the relationship with its surroundings as it rises to eventually reach out to the great city scape limited by the Andes. The two tree lined courtyards provide scale, shade, and quality public spaces at ground level. Trees give the same quality and character to the large terrace-courtyards which are designed for appropriate species to grow in overhanging planters.