Contemporary Architecture from the Hillside (IN PROGRESS)
Casa Alfacar is a single-family home located on the slopes of the Sierra de Huétor, in the town of Alfacar, Granada. Its design responds to a logic of adaptation to the terrain and dialogue with the landscape: rather than imposing itself on the hillside, it settles into it, taking advantage of its slope and views to create an intimate, climate-efficient architecture deeply rooted in its context.
Architecture from the Terrain
The house is slightly rotated from the usual orthogonal axes to optimize solar orientation, cross ventilation, and direct connection to the garden. This rotation generates a series of differentiated outdoor spaces, closely linked to each room, allowing the house to open or close depending on the time of day, the season, or the activity.
The design begins with a clear premise: the land is not drastically altered—it is interpreted. The platforms descend in a stepped manner, establishing an organic relationship with the hillside and avoiding unnecessary earthworks. The slope is not a problem but an opportunity to define different levels of use, views, and privacy.
A Reinterpretation of Vernacular Typology
Casa Alfacar draws from the traditional mountain architecture: thick walls, solar protection, patios, strategic orientation, and the use of local materials. Yet it does so through a contemporary lens that moves away from formal nostalgia to focus instead on the underlying principles of vernacular logic: passive sustainability, human scale, and climatic appropriateness.
Rational use of resources, thermal control through the building envelope, natural lighting in all rooms, and cross ventilation are central elements in the house’s everyday performance.
Interior Spaces that Extend the Landscape
The interior is conceived as an extension of the exterior. The main rooms open onto specific garden areas, establishing a direct relationship between living and nature: the dining room faces the afternoon shade, while the bedrooms look to the calm of the morning light. There are no imposed hierarchies—only a balance between openness, retreat, and visual continuity.
Materials, mostly natural and low maintenance, reinforce this sense of inhabited serenity: stone, lime, wood, and neutral ceramics that respond to the shifting light of the mountainside.
The Slope as Opportunity
Casa Alfacar belongs to a contemporary lineage of hillside dwellings that understand the slope not as an obstacle but as a project tool. Like other homes built on complex topographies, this project explores how the terrain can define the structure of inhabiting: what is seen, what is hidden, what is walked through, and how life unfolds.
A Mountain Home, from the Essential. Alfacar House does not seek monumentality or display. It is a house conceived from the place, responding with intelligence and humility to its environment, redefining domestic life through the lens of what is essential. It is part of a broader approach to architecture that values listening, adaptation, and quiet beauty.
Promoters: Sonia and Iván.
