Silvestre's Atrium House in Record Houses

© Juan Rodríguez

Architectural Record's long-awaited Record Houses issue comes out every April. With only 7 houses selected from around the world, it`s one of the most hard-to-get-into issues we do. All told, I think I've published only three houses in Record over the past 20 years, and only two in  Spain. So congratulations to Fran Silvestre, this young architect from Valencia, and his Atrium House. I may have been a little hard on him in places, but he's just getting started and has time to figure things out. Thanks to my Record editors too for the catchy title, The Box Stripped Bare (By her bachelors, even?).

"This is a work at ease in nature and the outdoors. With its 50-foot-long lap pool and elegant white marble, the Atrium House is the incarnation of an enduring Mediterranean ideal."

"The house can be taken in at a glance: a continuous wall of floor-to-ceiling glass reveals a 57-foot- long wing for the living area on one side and a bedroom wing on the other. 'My strategy was to free the largest possible area for a private outdoor space with limitless height and volume,' Silvestre explains. 'I see the house and its site as a continuum.'”

Look up everyone, this is another sign that architecture is really cooling down.....

 The Box Stripped Bare
Atrium House, Godella, Valencia, by Fran Silvestre
Architectural Record, Record Houses, April 2013