In Borriana, Piera House treats the boundary as architecture. A continuous field of angled aluminum profiles frames nearly the entire plot as a courtyard, screening views from the street while admitting light and air. Behind this permeable edge, a glass-defined ground level merges interior program with the exterior, and a veiled upper volume overhangs to produce shade as a spatial limit.
Piera House Technical Information
- Architects: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
- Location: Borriana, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain
- Gross Area: 292 m2 | 3,144 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2020 – 2021
- Photographs: © Fernando Guerra
We were interested in a limit that blocks the gaze yet lets air and light pass, turning the setback into the house’s principal room.
– Fran Silvestre
Piera House Photographs
Calibrated Thresholds: From Street to Courtyard
Local regulations that fix fence opacity became the project’s starting point. Rather than splitting the boundary into opaque and permeable bands, the architects deploy a single full-height screen of aluminum profiles set at a calibrated angle. From the public side, the section and orientation of these elements cancel direct sight lines into the plot while allowing wind to pass and daylight to filter through. The edge reads as a thin, precise urban trace that aligns with the quiet grain of the neighborhood.
This continuous lattice defines a courtyard that occupies almost the entire site, effectively transforming the regulatory setback into the main spatial asset. The screen’s constant material language links ground and upper levels, so the urban interface, the enclosure, and the house’s veil register as one continuous system. The porch-like space between screen and glass oscillates between exterior and interior, providing a gradated sequence from street to dwelling rather than a single gate condition.
Ground Level as Continuous Field
The heated enclosure is drawn with large-format glazing that reads as a thin, transparent membrane within the deeper field of the courtyard. When the openings slide, dining, living, and circulation enlarge into the exterior without a perceptible threshold, aided by flush floor finishes and concealed frames. The interior structure is kept to a minimum so that long sight lines and clear spans emphasize the plot as the primary room.
A shallow reflecting pond extends the perceived depth of the court and modulates the microclimate through evaporative cooling and increased albedo. Its surface amplifies the screen’s changing shadows, projecting a fluid light condition into the living areas. The combination of high-transmission glass, shaded apron, and water body produces a cooler foreground that tempers solar gains before they reach the interior envelope.
Hovering Private Volume and the Work of Shade
The private rooms occupy an upper volume that appears to hover above the glass ground floor. Clad in the same profiled aluminum, the veil permits outward view while resisting direct visibility from the exterior, an inversion of the street-facing opacity. The assembly reads as a light skin rather than a load-bearing facade, reinforcing the perceptual separation between a grounded communal plinth and a more withdrawn upper layer.
By projecting beyond the enclosed footprint below, the upper floor creates terraces and deep overhangs that cast shade as a precise immaterial border. In the Mediterranean climate, this calibration of elevation, shadow, and setback mitigates glare and reduces peak cooling loads while enabling windows to remain open for cross ventilation. The shaded intermediate spaces become seasonal extensions of the bedrooms, balancing privacy with environmental performance.
Lattice as Architecture: Tectonics of Light and Privacy
The project elevates a gate-like lattice from accessory to architectural system. Industrial aluminum profiles, arranged at a constant spacing and set to a specific angle of rotation, meet three demands: privacy from the street, controlled lateral airflow, and protection from high-angle sunlight. The result is a single element performing as fence, brise-soleil, and second skin, reducing the need for additional shading devices or heavy envelope strategies.
As the sun moves, the screen orchestrates shifting bands of light across floors, water, and walls, turning daily cycles into a legible material effect. The tectonic clarity of extrusion, joinery, and anchorage is key to this performance. Durable finishes resist coastal corrosion, slender sections limit thermal mass, and continuous fixing lines maintain structural stiffness under wind load while keeping visual noise to a minimum. The approach resonates with regional traditions of screened architecture, recalling the mashrabiya as both environmental instrument and social mediator, yet executed here with contemporary industrial components.
Piera House Image Gallery
About Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
Founded in 2005 and based in Valencia, Spain, Fran Silvestre Arquitectos explores the intersection of precision, material clarity, and spatial continuity. The studio is known for its sculptural forms, minimalist aesthetics, and innovative use of industrial materials to create architecture that responds sensitively to context while enhancing experiential lightness and flow.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Architects: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos
- Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
