For this site facing the monastery of El Escorial we designed a compact family house, respectful of its wooded surroundings.

The plan is built on a nine square grid with a glazed interior courtyard about which the house´s interior circulation rotates. The lower floor is stepped, following the natural grade of the terrain. As a result, each space has an easy and direct relationship with the surrounding exterior ground, and the terraces, which are to the north and south, are natural extensions of the house towards the garden.

From both inside and out, the roof plane is perceived as a continuous, modulated surface whose inclination follows that of the land. Upon this plane a rotated square is inscribed, forming the lines about which the roof folds. The resultant prismatic geometry is clear and direct. The house appears compact from the outside, yet spacious and diaphanous from within, with interior views which continue, passing through the transparency of the courtyard.

The volume of the house cantilevers over its foundations towards the east, forming a large porch among the pines. The cantilever emulates formally the ideas of the house: on one hand the house is well nested in the landscape, and on the other it is orientated towards the view of the monastery, the lightness that is provided by the cantilever helping to emphasise this aspiration.