JMNZ HOUSES
Architects: Office Tohme Martinez
Leader Project: Juan Tohme
Collaboration: Marcelo Ramos
Clients: Private
This project consists of three single-family houses developed on a shared sloping plot, designed to accommodate three independent families while maintaining a cohesive architectural identity. Rather than leveling the terrain, the proposal embraces the natural topography as a generative design tool, transforming the slope into a system of inhabitable platforms.
Each house is organized through a sequence of staggered planes that adapt to the terrain, allowing the architecture to step, slide, and anchor itself to the ground. These platforms define both the structural logic and the spatial experience, creating gradual transitions between interior and exterior spaces while optimizing views, sunlight, and natural ventilation.
The relationship with the ground is not treated as a neutral base but as an active element of the project. By working with the slope, the houses establish differentiated levels of privacy, access, and outdoor living, while minimizing earth movement and preserving the existing landscape. Terraces, gardens, and semi-covered spaces emerge naturally from this strategy, reinforcing a continuous dialogue between built form and terrain.
Although the three houses share the same plot, each one is articulated with subtle variations in section, orientation, and spatial sequencing. This approach ensures individuality for each family while maintaining a unified architectural language defined by clean volumes, horizontal platforms, and a restrained material palette.
The project proposes a contemporary model of collective living that balances density and domesticity, demonstrating how topography, when understood as an opportunity rather than a constraint, can generate richer spatial relationships and a more sustainable integration with the site.
Project Type
Residential
Date
2021
Location
Conocoto, Ecuador
Photos
Agustín Piña