HOUSE OF ARTIFICIAL GARDENS

RESIDENCE RENOVATION

Type: Residential

Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Year: 2019-2023

Status: Built

Design Team: Silvana Herrera, Armando Rigau, Ryan Glick, Alexander Esparolini

Collaborators: ERC Engineers/ Edgardo Romero (Contractor)

Description: After the project “Penumbra in 2 Shadows,” the clients requested several additional interventions in their home. The existing structure, predominantly composed of concrete, had a heavy and dull reading, almost brutalist. Thus to lighten its appearance, the new design proposed the addition of “artificial gardens” in various scattered areas of the residence. Using as a starting point the previous design of the pergola, inspired by Puerto Rico’s coffee-growing tradition under shade, the other gardens were inspired by natural landscapes of the island. Moving through the residence, one can discover different environments that allude to the textures and colors of beaches, forests, hills, rivers, and caves. The main interventions were the new construction of a master bathroom and a multipurpose room, the expansion of the terrace with a pool, and the rehabilitation of the kitchen, along with other bathrooms and the living room.

Reaching the master bathroom feels like arriving in a hidden place. Inside, one area is lined with cedar wood elements in the ceiling and with banana plants on the wall. These forest-like patterns complement the real greenery peeking out from the windows. On the opposite side, the shower is perceived as a cavernous formation, covered from floor to ceiling with natural stone. In the terrace and pool area, the materiality relates to a beach. While the creamy, rough-textured ceramic and the pool marble suggest sand, one can appreciate a crystalline blue color in the pool’s deep-water area, like in the sea. Three concrete elements define this space: a back wall with a water veil that abuts a serving table for a BBQ; a bench to lie down in the sun, and a semi-open pergola that suggests the partial shade plants often provide on the beaches of Puerto Rico. Lastly for other areas, the island’s richness of soil and flora types translated into the diverse selection of materials. In the kitchen, neutral and colorful natural stones compliment the greenery seen through the windows on the horizon. In smaller spaces, a “wallpaper” with tropical plants was installed in the powder room, geometric tiles with organic patterns hint at water in one of the bathrooms, and slatted elements evoke the vertical growth of mangroves.