Sierra de Madrid is the name of the mountainous region near the Spanish Capital. For those who do not live in the Spanish capital, is very popular among locals thanks to its great landscape and natural value. In winter its peaks are still covered with snow. In summer you can enjoy a good handful of degrees less than the urban oven suffers, being able to even sleep well at night thanks to the coolness of the mountains. There are varied fauna, rivers and clean natural pools in which bathing is allowed, sidewalks and very pleasant routes. Sierra de Madrid is the most recurrent escape door to breathe fresh air for all Madrilenians, especially since it is very close to the city, in 45 minutes by car you can be in the middle of nature, actually, in the middle of a quality natural environment.
It explains then why the existence of multiple second residences, they are very common in that region, dotting all the small towns along a radius of up to an hour and a half of driving distance to Madrid. Both during the holidays and every weekend, the people of Madrid, many of them with rural origins one or two generations above, love to feel “hometown” again from time to time. Come back to live even for a few days or weeks with pause, with quality of life, without traffic, without noise.
The land around here is usually always sloping, especially when we are already at a considerable altitude in the mountains, so the BUS House has to adapt to these slopes by forming a terrace with its pleasant backyard higher than the entrance street itself. Casa BUS is a town house, a house in the mountains near Madrid “initially proposed” as a place of recreation and rest for an urban family. A return to the origins, a return to life in the village.
It is important to underline the words “initially proposed”: when the project was conceived, the world was enjoying the pre-covid-19 context, and the work was completed a few months before the pandemic broke out.
Suddenly the “second residence” has become an excellent option for the family that inhabits it as a habitual residence. The depth of the social, economic, health, and urban changes that will come after the end of the covid-19 pandemic is currently (September 2020) unknown, but everything points to the fact that homes in rural areas close to Cities are already becoming a very attractive life option for many.
These are spacious and cheap houses (in the city you could never build for the same price on such a large lot), with all the comforts of modern life, perfectly connected, built according to contemporary sustainable standards, in healthier places, more spacious, with a higher quality of life, … And close to large cities. You can telecommute most of the time and go to the city once or twice per week if you want to attend in-person to some management or enjoy the cultural offer of the city.
OOIIO Architecture has been building modern houses in rural settings for years, not at all because we saw such a pandemic coming, but because we were always interested in those contexts to work with, and some projects called others. Luckily right now we have extensive experience in works of this type.
The BUS House has become for us a work that will mark a turning point within the studio. A house in the mountains of Madrid, designed as a second residence, which enjoys all the advantages dreamed by those who previously only looked at towns as picturesque places to go for lunch on a Sunday. Text description by the architects.
