Located in an abandoned terraced south-looking lemon tree grove, the scheme preserves the stepped site to provide intimacy to outdoor areas and afford solar radiation, deploying a set of parallel two-storey buildings which step down the slope.

Relying on local climatic typologies, the architectural strategies combine spatial and material strategies to adapt to Murcia’s Mediterranean climate. Massing, high-thermal inertia building systems and buoyant solar chimneys devices are articulated to provide a comfortable and intense indoor climate. A collection of south-oriented convective living-rooms induce an all year-round comfortable interior atmosphere. The convective livings conflate spatial, everyday-life and climatic strategies in a single room. The concrete prefabricated double-height living room provides convective ventilation in summer and heat accumulation in winter.

Material logistics. The design process mapped systematically the logistic geographies of construction materials —from extraction and manufacturing to building site— to compare and contrast and evaluate energy budget and socioeconomic potential for the Murcia region.

Location: Jabalí Viejo, Murcia

Date: 2007-2008

Client: Green Key s.l.

Area: 3.500 m²

Project architects: TAAs (Javier García-Germán)

Project team: Alia García-Germán, Ismael Aboli, Begoña Leal, Luis Mesejo, Juan Riveiro, Therezia Sloet tot Everlo

Consultants: Úrculo ingenieros

Quantity Surveyor: Miguel Ángel Martín Melgar

Budget: 4.350.000 €