Inhabited Exterior Places in Urban Environments. Residential Buildings by Juan de Haro

Abstract

One of the most significant examples of inhabited exterior places in urban environments, may be found in the residential work of Juan de Haro. Haro was a Catalonian architect with Mediterranean roots who showed great interest on eastern tradition and contemporary European architecture. The objective of this paper is to spread his original and unknown inhabited exterior places of three of his housing buildings in Madrid whose common denominator is the metallic enclosure. One of these exterior places main advantage is the flexibility. By means of large sliding carpentry they can be joined to the interior spaces while being protected through latticework and slats from urban environment. The paper is based on inductive methodology and comparative analytical drawing of the three study cases. His legacy at the historical department of COAM, magazines from the sixties and seventies and the little research and papers that exist about his work, among which we highlight one by Maite Muñoz and Juan Daniel Fullaondo, have been analysed. In addition, the three houses have been visited and their current condition has been compared with that originally built. Juan de Haro anticipated house confinements by designing collective housing with inhabited exterior places which allow ventilation with greater intimacy and at the same time, enjoyment of outdoor spaces without leaving home.