Designing a house for someone is like constructing a portrait. the portrait of one or more human beings in their relationship with others and with the world.

Casa Ortega was designed for a devoted son. The brief was clear: one pavilion for the parents, another for Raúl and a potential future family. Two houses in one—independent yet interconnected. Two open links that concatenate into a horizontal figure eight, a symbol of infinity, of eternal return.

One way to untie bonds without tearing them is to give them their rightful space. The social realm (kitchen, dining room, living room) could be shared; the private realm (bedrooms and bathrooms) could remain separate.

The starting point, then, was the assembly of two pieces of identical form but different scale: a “C” embracing a garden for Raúl, and another “C” embracing a garden for his parents. The first would receive the afternoon sun and orient itself toward the mountain range that defines its horizon; the second would receive the morning sun and turn inward.

Due to the dual nature of the house, the private area on the upper floor exceeds the surface of the shared and semi-shared areas on the ground floor. A pair of inclined walls resolves this difference and takes on its own function and life: one as a stepped library, the other as an interior garden, where the planters cascade in tiers.