ABSTRACT
The project concerns a building extension of a traditional rural house, in a village of Castilla la Mancha, a region located in the inner areas of Spain. The building that dates back to the end of the 19th century is characterised by a simple layout, thick stone walls and whitewashing finishing. The project’s aim is to maintain the outline of the house and its energy performances but, at the same time, the architects have decided to distinguish the materials used in the new extension of the building. In this case the challenge is to find a construction solution aimed at the maintenance of thermal inertia and the compatibility between the old structure and the new one. For this reason, a new wing of the house has been built with rammed earth and lime walls, also reinforced with stones. Thick modules have been designed, considering the capability of their thermal mass to regulate the thermal gradient in the summer and in the winter. The village, for instance, is characterised by extreme temperature ranges, with huge differences between daytime and nighttime, and also between summer and winter temperatures. Rammed earth walls are a good answer for these problems, also considering the local building culture and use of raw materials, thus this area has usually presented mixed structures, both with rammed earth walls or stone structures.
