Articles by Pilar Caballero

Set within a 40-cent north-facing plot in Edamuttom, Thrissur, Louvered House stands as an exploration of how contemporary living can harmoniously coexist with the sensitivities of Kerala’s tropical climate and cultural memory. Once a flourishing nutmeg plantation, the site still retains its original trees and lush greenery, weaving ecological continuity into the architectural design. To the east, the client’s ancestral tharavad remains, adding another layer of heritage and familial rootedness to the project. This delicate balance of the old and the new forms the philosophical core of the residence.

The Way of Stealth: A Renewal Strategy Respecting Coexistence
Since 2022, this landscape in Hangzhou Tonglu has undergone its largest transformation. After careful investigation, SpActrum concluded that while the original site strategy had failed in form and material, the trees that grew alongside the buildings over twenty years stood out as an effective natural strategy. The first task was to persuade the client to abandon a “radically refreshed” look, instead rebuilding cabins and walkways with contemporary techniques – a return to a “non-referential” state.

A reversible stainless-steel intervention within Yerevan’s oldest preserved interior from the 1930s. Lumen Coffee 1936 revives a former bookstore, revealing the “Oriental Art Nouveau” wooden setting and creating a refined dialogue between heritage and contemporary design.

In architectural discourse, the notion of the “local” is often associated with regionally rooted building knowledge—materials, structures, and craftsmanship shaped by long-term interaction between human practices and the environment. In contemporary China, however, the idea of local construction is frequently reduced to two recognizable paradigms: rural architecture employing traditional materials and techniques, and hybrid practices that juxtapose local materials with industrial systems. Such interpretations overlook a broader and more pervasive reality.

In 2016, we were invited—along with several international studios—to take part in a closed competition for a single-family house in one of Vilnius’s suburban districts, organized by a private client. This is an area characterized by loose, traditional development, with houses and summer cottages nestled among trees and expansive recreational grounds. On the plot included in the competition, as well as in its surroundings, there were once wooden houses from the interwar period, which have not survived to the present day.

Situated in a medium-density suburb, Burnley is a composed urban infill to a row of townhouses that has replaced the formerly dominant terrace houses in the area. Sheltered behind the hit-and-miss brickwork is a tranquil home with robust materiality, unexpected sky views, and access to plenty of greenery.

Satoyama Terrace is a small-scale hospitality project situated within a traditional Japanese satoyama landscape, where natural systems and human activity have historically coexisted in dynamic balance. The project begins with a fundamental question: how can architecture engage with this landscape without reducing it to a static or consumable image? Rather than reproducing a nostalgic rural scenery, the design reinterprets the relationships embedded in satoyama and translates them into a contemporary spatial experience. Water, wind, soil, and vegetation are treated not as background elements, but as active forces shaping perception and occupation.

Garden in the heart of every home as a breath. The TT Houses arise from the idea that even on compact lots, it is possible to create generous, airy, and surprising spaces capable of transforming the living experience.