Project Name: House in the Woods

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Design Team: Espinoza Carvajal Arquitectos

Total Floor Area: 760 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Silueta Amarilla+SAJAESCA

Design Features:

Project - House in the Woods, designed by Espinoza Carvajal Arquitectos, stands in the Guayllabamba valley near Quito, Ecuador, where laminated timber construction meets traditional bahareque building techniques to create a 760-square-metre residence that levitates above the dry steppe landscape. The project employs a binuclear configuration that splits the built mass into two distinct volumes, creating space for a cluster of existing carob trees to occupy the centre of the composition, allowing domestic life to orbit around nature rather than displace it.

The project's most distinctive design feature lies in its hybrid construction system, which pairs industrial precision with vernacular wisdom. Elevated on a concrete and steel base, the primary timber structure rises above the ground plane, minimising its footprint on the terrain while establishing what the architects describe as an "art of lightness." The exposed laminated wood frame functions as both structure and thermal regulator, filtering afternoon sunlight and moderating interior temperatures through passive environmental strategies. Contemporary bahareque walls, filled with hemp and lime then finished with local earth plasters, chocoto clay and agave fibres, create breathing enclosures that provide thermal mass while anchoring the architecture to its regional context. These textured surfaces transform interior spaces into what the architects characterise as "caverns of controlled light."

The architectural narrative unfolds through sophisticated spatial organization, fully utilizing the site's natural conditions. The binuclear configuration strategy breaks the built mass to give prominence to a magnetic core of preexisting carob trees. Domestic life gravitates around this void inhabited by trees, separating the intimacy of rest from the social ritual of fire. Large openings and projecting terraces dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior, establishing the house as an active threshold to the surrounding forest. This spatial sequence allows residents to continuously experience the forest landscape, creating rich layers of spatial experience.

Material selection reflects triple considerations of structural system, residential quality, and environmental responsibility. The laminated wood structure remains exposed, honest, displaying constructive logic while integrating with a contemporary bahareque system. The walls are not inert enclosures; they breathe. Filled with hemp and lime, and covered with local earth plasters, chocoto, and agave fibers, the skin of the house possesses a texture and thermal inertia that anchor the project to its physical and cultural territory. This materiality transforms the interior corners into caverns of controlled light, sanctifying the act of dwelling. The building's overall material application demonstrates contemporary design refinement, establishing dialogue between regional materials and industrialized construction.

The project's defining feature lies in its regenerative environmental response and ecosystem value. A biofilter system completes the ecological approach by closing the water cycle and returning treated water to the landscape. Thus, the house not only occupies the forest but participates in its renewal, establishing an architecture that is, above all, a living system within the Guayllabamba ecosystem. By dissolving the boundaries between the interior and the exterior, the building becomes a threshold, an active lookout. However, its most lasting impact is invisible: the biofilter system returns a vital resource to the landscape. This design demonstrates new forms and roles for architecture as regenerative organism, adding value to sustainable residential design, making the individual residence an instrument beneficial to the ecosystem.

Beyond its form, the house operates as a regenerative organism. Through large openings and terraces that project toward the forest dissolving interior-exterior boundaries, the building becomes a threshold, an active observatory. This is architecture designed to enhance ecologically conscious living quality, proving that under specific regional conditions, architecture can create rich spatial experiences and emotional resonance through thoughtful design. Through the concepts of "lightness" and "breathing," the building redefines the significance of materials in contemporary rural residences, demonstrating the possibility of individual residences as ecological public instruments, establishing refined and powerful dialogues between construction and nature, between industry and tradition.

Design Team - Founded in 2008, Espinoza Carvajal Arquitectos is a Quito-based practice specializing in architectural, urban, landscape and product design. Currently led by founding partners Marlon, Kenny and Santiago Espinoza Carvajal, the firm has established itself as a significant voice in contemporary Latin American architecture through a methodical approach that addresses multi-scalar residential and institutional projects.

The practice operates as an integrated platform for design, research and execution, bringing together professionals from architecture, engineering, technology, arts and traditional craftsmanship. This interdisciplinary model enables the firm to engage comprehensively with processes of change affecting clients, institutions and urban environments. The firm believes that careful consideration of each design element creates architecture capable of moving people emotionally and remaining valuable across time.

Espinoza Carvajal's work has garnered substantial recognition within the architectural community. Notable achievements include the first national prize for urban and landscape projects at the Quito Architecture Biennale, the first international mention at the Oscar Niemeyer Awards, and recognition from the Municipal GAD of Loja for contributions to arts and architecture. The firm has received additional honors at the BAQ, BIAU and BAL biennales, establishing its reputation across national and international platforms.

The three principals bring complementary expertise to the practice. Santiago Espinoza holds a Master's in Landscape Architecture and teaches at FADA-PUCE, having presented at Casa de Madrid in Madrid, Spain. Kenny Espinoza, with a Master's in Architectural Projects, is a faculty member at FAD-UDLA, having presented at the BA13 Buenos Aires Biennale. Marlon Espinoza, a civil engineer with a Master's in Construction, manages the firm's operations while teaching at FADA-PUCE, having presented at BAQ XXI academic axis. All three partners regularly contribute to architectural discourse through workshops and conferences at universities throughout Latin America and Spain, demonstrating the firm's dual impact in academic and practice realms.