OCTOPLEX/
The Davila House / An Octoplex for Eight
La Paz, Bolivia
2016
Siblings in Obrajes, is an eight-unit housing project located in the Obrajes neighborhood of La Paz, Bolivia. Inherited from their parents, the eight siblings could not find an equitable and agreed upon solution with the existing Davila house, the five bedroom house where the children were all raised. As a result, the only solution was to construct an eight-unit building where each of the siblings could have their own unit to either live in or rent out as they choose.
The project has a number of external and internal constraints. Due to the narrow site dimensions and zoning requirements, the housing block had to be elevated to allow for car parking below while not exceeding six (6) stories in height. Additionally, each unit was to have three (3) bedrooms and two (2) baths, necessitating that each unit have approximately 3/4 of a floor plate. In order to aggregate the eight units on six floors and meet the programmatic requirements, each unit was broken down into three (3) cells - a master suite and outdoor space/terrace; living space, dining space, and kitchen; and two bedrooms with a shared bathroom. These three cells were then aggregated in a manner that that created three different types of units that allowed for adjacencies and close relationships between certain siblings while keeping fighting siblings apart. Vertical circulation for both the building and for each unit, was relegated to 2.4 m bay on the east facade, as to not interfere with the flow and aggregation of living spaces of each unit. As a result, the idiosyncratic organizational strategy produces two differentiated systems of a creating “neighborhoods”, one comprised by the major circulation arteries on the east elevation and the relationships to terraces, balconies and dining spaces on the west facade. Additionally, protruding dining spaces are oriented towards with views of the city or towards the mountain peak of Illimani.