Case Study: A Roof Clad in Natural Ceramic Pavers by Gres de Aragón
By Gres Aragón
The chosen stoneware is from the Natural collection: a timeless, simple, traditional extruded model. The pavers stand out for their high resistance and lasting beauty.
In the small village of Guisande, on the beautiful wild coast known as the Costa de la Muerte (La Coruña, Galicia, Spain), Galician architect Rodrigo Currás Torres has built a detached villa that stands out for its curved roof, clad in extruded stoneware pavers by Gres Aragón: a traditional product used in a unique way.
The villa is divided into different overlapping volumes which link up the interiors and the home’s different uses, striving to capture the essence of the local setting, where a linear wood stretches out at the end of a clearing. These juxtaposed volumes combine to form an ensemble unified by its ceramic rooftop.
The home’s space cells are its rooms, conceived as places where it must be possible to carry out the most basic functions required in a home, combining comfort with spaciousness and seclusion.
The single-pitch roofs are designed to bring to mind the traditional rooftops of a small village. To achieve this, a natural clay material was chosen, whose color and laid pattern would conjure up these traditional rooftops.
Its interiors are based on the notion of juxtaposed settings, so that the day-time part of the villa – the living spaces and areas for relaxing – lead through to the more private night-time areas, the bedrooms.
Traditional extruded stoneware pavers form waves on the roof
The tiled roof traces differing curved shapes, echoing the curved ceilings inside the volumes. The villa’s fragmented design includes a prism-like main volume, with a perforated rectangular ground floor, flanked by courtyards that let the sunlight in.
The single-pitch roofs are designed to bring to mind the traditional rooftops of a small village. To achieve this, a natural clay material was chosen, whose color and laid pattern would conjure up these traditional rooftops.
The Galician architect chose tiles known as “tijoleiras” in the local language: emblematic 20x20cm square paving tiles by Gres Aragón that follow the curves of the roof, blending in with the landscape. The natural-colored ceramic pavers unify the different volumes, evoking the essence and origins of the local backdrop.
The chosen stoneware is from the Natural collection: a timeless, simple, traditional extruded model. The pavers stand out for their high resistance and lasting beauty, still very much up to the minute. As the name of the collection indicates, the appearance of the pavers reflects the color of the clays used to make them.
The villa also stands out for its ceramic screens, used to create transitions between its interiors and exteriors, closing off private areas while also allowing for a slight permeability between different settings. The ceramic screens, courtyards and angled views help to ensure privacy, while also filtering the light and contributing to different uses.
Architect Rodrigo Currás Torres
Rodrigo Currás Torres is a Galician architect who trained at Oporto School of Art (Portugal) and Helsinki University of Technology (Finland). He has had an architect’s studio in Moaña (Galicia) since 2005. Currás Torres has been singled out to receive different awards for his architecture. His projects stand out for their consideration of their surroundings and the local architecture.
For more information, visit Gres Aragón’s website.