Photo by Michelle Alasio
1. The Sketch
Sketch of the house
This is La Casa del Retiro Espiritual, designed by Argentine architect Emilio Ambasz.
Located in the hills of Córdoba, Spain, the house was conceived long before the site was found. It first appeared to Ambasz as an image, one that came to him as he was preparing for bed, nearly fifty years before he built it.
Ambasz describes architecture as an art that “invents a universe that doesn’t exist until it appears.” He doesn’t iterate through sketches but resolves everything in his mind, primarily by working in section.
And if you think about it, it makes sense, it’s through the section that we truly understand space.
That may be why this project feels so powerful. Ambasz had clearly envisioned the two perpendicular white walls before setting graphite to paper. He drew them only to ensure he wouldn’t forget.
Photo by Michelle Alasio
He believes that a good project can only begin with:
An Image that moves the Heart
As poetic as that sounds, I find it risky in today’s world, considering the rise of AI-generated images. I understand what my compatriot means, but I tend to believe more in a dominant idea, a conceptual backbone, rather than a single image. Perhaps it’s just a matter of semantics.
Emilio Ambasw and Associates I MoMa
What fascinates me most about this house is the tension born of contradiction:
the dwelling is hidden beneath the earth, full of organic forms, yet those whitewashed, orthogonal walls “screaming with their mouths shut” couldn’t be more rigid.
Photo by Michelle Alasio
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2. The Thought
Those magnificent white washed walls hold the stairs and the only hand rails that lead to the balcony. The walls have no top protection or finish, which makes them so pure, but at the cost of having to have them re painted once every 7 years. They meet at an angle which is pointed directly due North which has several implications.
Photo by Michelle Alasio
On one hand, whenever the sun is up, it will be hitting one of the walls internal side. The architect understood that the light that was going to be bouncing off it was going to be so strong that he set the proper house back with a protection, an overhang.
Photo by Michelle Alasio
We also have the stairs themselves. These are not for the faint of heart as they only have a railing against the walls themselves. So it is these walls that hold the stairs and the railings, of course it couldn’t be any other way. There is another detail to them, as the railings are also a sort of fountain with water running inside them. Adding to the poetry (and the danger!), the noise of the water is loud at the base but diminishes with the ascent. Its also worth to be noted that the view from the top is fully concealed until you reach the summit, so expectation builds up to the reveal.
One final detail we can see here is the gap between the steps.
When the sun hits these incredibly thin steps directly, they each produce one individual shadow as opposed to one shadow which adds to the delicacy.
Still from “Gray over Green”.
3 The Work
New Article coming up about Thermal Comfort!
Child playing - Low metabolic rate
Working with limited adaptive opportunitues
For this new article I’ve decided to do all my images myself and color them with watercolors! I’ve come to this idea for 2 reasons. One, I’m tired of A.I. images, and I believe I’m not the only one. I don’t think there’ anything inherently wrong with them, but I feel they are lacking the craft. The second reason is that I want to learn how to watercolor and harness this new skill, let’s see how it goes!
The article should be available next week!
New video Coming up: “How An Architect Sees The World”
Sketch of the Hergé Musée by Christian de Portzamparc
This video is all about how I use sketching in my day to day. Not only to communicate ideas, but also to learn from other architects. I believe that visiting a space can teach me a lot, but drawing it, makes it mine in a way.
The video will normally be uploaded this Sunday November 9th.
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Pedro Augspach is an architect based in Belgium whose work explores the intersection of comfort, climate, and design. Trained at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA) and the Architectural Association in London, he approaches architecture as both analysis and intuition.
Through his practice and his YouTube channel, he shares a deeper understanding of sustainable design, translating technical insight into ideas that anyone can grasp. His work is guided by a simple belief: that architecture begins with empathy; reading the site, understanding the climate, and acknowledging how people will inhabit each space.
This newsletter extends that philosophy by sharing sketches,eflections, and works in progress that bridge thinking and making.