Camp Alliances house has reciprocal relationship with Spanish forest

Angular forms cloaked in green-toned metal make up Camp Alliances, a family home in Spain by Madrid studio OF Architects and architect Ignacio G Galán.

Nestled within a forest in Avila, the dwelling is organised across three levels, including a lower-ground floor at its southern end that addresses the home's sloping site.

According to Galán, the home has a "compact volume" intended to reduce its impact on the surrounding nature and to establish a "reciprocal relationship with the forest".

This goal is also reflected in the home's geometry, which OF Architects and Galán designed so that each room has windows on at least two facades, maximising natural light, ventilation and views.

"The form emerges from a tension between compactness and environmental integration," Galán told Dezeen.

"Defined as a compact volume to reduce heat gains and losses in a relatively extreme climate, the geometry of the house ensures cross-ventilation and multiple orientations for each room," he added.

"Compactness reduces heat transfer and limits the building's physical impact on the continuity of the arboreal mass, which is essential for local wildlife."

Camp Alliances is accessed through a sheltered entrance at its northern end. Meanwhile, at its southern end, a large veranda conceptualised as a "climatic buffer" has been raised on yellow-toned columns to meet the home's ground floor.

A spiral staircase leads up to the outdoor area, which is sheltered by a ring-like canopy shaped to accommodate a tree growing through a void in the home's structure.

"Instead of elevating occupants above the treetops in a panoramic or surveillant manner, [the veranda] situates them right below the treetops," Galán said.

Expansive glazing lines the southern facade, where sliding doors open up from the veranda into an interconnected living, kitchen and dining area.

Inside, the ground-floor spaces are divided by a flexible sliding partition, distinguishing a kitchen and seating area at the rear from a lounge and lofty dining room.

Tiled floors and wood-lined surfaces unite the ground floor spaces and are paired with thin green-coloured columns and sheer curtains.

At the opposite end of the home, a spiral wooden staircase wrapped in green metal rises from the entrance hall to the home's upper floors.

Here, a series of ensuite bedrooms and additional living areas sit beneath the home's pitched and sawtooth roofs.

A stripped-back material palette of wooden floors and white-wash walls is complemented by windows framing views of the forest.

OF Architects and Galán also integrated an on-site water management system into the home and surrounding landscape due to the absence of sewage infrastructure.

This system temporarily stores water before separating it and filtering it, before eventually being reintroducing it to the environment.

"The project engages the site both by reducing its environmental footprint and by contributing to ecosystem regeneration," Galán said.

OF Architects and Galán previously collaborated on a metal-clad home in Madrid, designed to reinforce social networks for an ageing couple.

Other Spanish homes recently featured on Dezeen include a minimalist dwelling organised around a central courtyard in Costa Brava and a concrete residence with a sunken courtyard in Tarragona.

The photography is by Imagen Subliminal.

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