A House for Someone Like Me, Natura Futura Arquitectura

Ecuadorian architecture firm Natura Futura Arquitectura has designed a house whose name - as is the studio's habit - is a programme. A small house for a Mum and two children, which uses “the traditional as a strategy and the place as a resource”.



Creating an eye-catching, cosy home on a tight budget for a young mother with two children and a business in Babahoyo centre, province of Los Ríos, Ecuador.
This is what the studio of José Fernando Gomez, Natura Futura Arquitectura  - already known to our readers (lnk)  - handled, with the use of a range of strategies to end up with design solution that was economically sustainable as well as being a feast for the eyes.





On a site of just 7 x 20 metres an interesting spatial exploration was used to construct two bedrooms (one with en-suite) plus an open-plan living, kitchen and dining zone, bathroom and patio that extends the living area outdoors to link the home with the street.



By careful selection of building materials, general costs were kept down, thanks to simple, easily sourced materials like concrete and bare bricks for floor and walls, wood for the doors, and a metal frame with tin roof. At the same time, these were skilfully combined to create a warm, welcoming ambience where you can really feel at home.





Being a tropical climate zone, the architects opted to set up a dialogue between indoors and out, so the timber sliding doors of the living zone open up completely onto the patio, which in turn communicates with the street through a perforated wall that creates a great lantern effect at night.



With “House for Someone Like Me”, Natura Futura Arquitectura shows how architecture rooted in tradition - like the materials - and that makes the best use of the space, even when limited, as a resource can come up with really special responses even in tough districts, like the one where this project is located in Babahoya. A virtuous example in the fresh style of these young Ecuadorian architects.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Natura Futura Arquitectura
Architect in charge: José Fernando Gómez M
Location: Babahoyo, Ecuador
José Fernando Gómez M
Construction area: 85 m2
Year: 2016 
Photographs: Cristhian Guerrero and Natura Futura