In the rural parish of Perucho, about 35 kilometers from Quito, La Cabina de la Curiosidad has turned a modest 105-square-meter building into a home and artist studio by concentrating much of the intervention overhead. The existing structure began as a block-walled warehouse and slowly became a house through years of piecemeal repairs. By the time architects Marie Combette and Daniel Moreno Flores approached it, moisture had entered the walls and the heavy clay-tile roof was nearing collapse.
The masonry shell stayed largely where it was, while the failing roof became the opening for a much bigger spatial change. Its replacement rises above the old walls as a lightweight structure of eucalyptus poles, creating enough volume to suspend two bedrooms beneath it. The architects call these elevated rooms “nests,” a name that also connects the house to the Cholán tree growing nearby.
images © JAG Studio, Marie Combette
two bedrooms hang above the old house
The new upper level by the architects at La Cabina de la Curiosidad has the loose, handmade character of a structure assembled from locally-sourced materials. Eucalyptus poles form the frame, while split cane lines broad surfaces overhead. Coconut fiber provides thermal insulation, and inexpensive egg cartons are used for acoustic insulation beneath the metal roof. The exposed construction gives the bedrooms a feeling somewhere between a loft and a shelter, enclosed enough for sleep while still visually tied to the larger volume below.
Wooden walkways run along the edges of the double-height space, passing the suspended rooms and looking back into the studio and living areas. Much of the architecture remains visible here: round poles meet beams directly, tension cables cross the walls, and the cane ceiling runs almost continuously above. The house feels assembled in layers, with the heavier existing block structure sitting below a much lighter timber world.
La Cabina de la Curiosidad raises a lightweight eucalyptus roof above the original masonry house
the old shell opens toward the landscape
New glass facades bring a relationship with the surrounding fields that the original warehouse never had. Raising the roof allowed La Cabina de la Curiosidad to introduce daylight above the retained walls and improve air circulation through the interior, while views now extend toward the Cholán tree and the mountains beyond Perucho. The contrast is especially visible from outside, where the pale masonry base meets a long band of eucalyptus posts under the broad roof.
Changes at ground level are comparatively direct. One interior wall was removed to create a larger continuous living space, while timber salvaged from the dismantled roof was reused to level the floor between the kitchen and living room. The studio sits beside the entrance, and the main interior now moves more freely toward the garden through broad openings in the existing shell.
eucalyptus poles and split cane give the upper level its exposed handmade character
salvaged wood moves back into the house
Reusing the old roof timbers gives the renovation a pleasingly literal economy. Pieces taken from one part of the building return somewhere else as flooring or structure, while much of the original masonry remains in place. At the base, drainage work and waterproofing address the damp walls, and the block structure was reinforced to support the altered volume above.
What makes Cholán Nests House so engaging is how visible that process remains once construction is finished. The architects never disguise the shift between the original warehouse and its new inhabitable layer. Concrete block, recycled boards, eucalyptus poles and woven cane each retain their own character, so the house reads almost like a record of how it was repaired. Above the familiar rooms of the old building, two timber nests now hover within the roof, turning a former storage structure into a surprisingly tall and open place to live and work.
timber walkways pass alongside the elevated sleeping nests and overlook the rooms below
two suspended bedrooms occupy the newly created volume beneath the roof
the original block walls remain beneath the lighter timber structure
new clerestory windows connect the interior with the fields surrounding Perucho
salvaged boards from the former roof return as flooring inside the house
project info:
name: Cholán Nests House
architecture: La Cabina de la Curiosidad | @la_cabina_de_la_curiosidad
location: Perucho, Ecuador
lead architects: Marie Combette, Daniel Moreno Flores
design team: David Rodríguez
area: 105 sqm
completion: 2022
photography: © JAG Studio | @jag_studio, Marie Combette | @marie_combette
The post la cabina de la curiosidad suspends timber ‘nests’ beneath eucalyptus roof in ecuador appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.