- Project: El Limonar House
- Architect: Termopolio Arquitectura
- Location: Ecuador, Portoviejo
- Year: 2023
- Area: 215 m2
- Photography: Andrés Villota Pelusa
Architecture Rooted in Orchard and Terrain
Nestled within a historic lemon plantation on the peri-urban edge of Portoviejo, El Limonar House by Termopolio Arquitectura is an architectural response to landscape, climate and tradition. The design acknowledges the lush lemon groves that surround the site—an important legacy for the client—and forms a home that celebrates privacy, nature, and subtle spatial complexity.
Fragmented Volumes, Defined Zones
Rather than one monolithic block, the house is conceived as three single-level volumes aligned along a north-south social axis and flanked by lateral wings for more private and service functions. This “defragmentation of the cube” allows the architecture to adapt to the terrain and context, producing voids, corridors, and semi-outdoor spaces that mediate between built form and plantation.
By positioning service, social and rest programmes into separate volumes and linking them via glass-lined corridors, the design creates a dialogue between openness and enclosure, landscape and architecture.
Materiality & Climate Logic
El Limonar uses a refined palette: handmade brick, exposed concrete, structural steel and generous glazing. These material choices establish a blend of local craft, modern expression and environmental responsiveness. Roofs are intentionally inclined—mimicking irrigation slopes of the plantation and providing natural shading and ventilation. This feature ties the architecture directly to the land, reinforcing the idea of vegetation as a “principal agent in the design”.
Indoor-Outdoor Continuity and Spatial Sequence
The house opens toward the lemon groves rather than the street: as one moves through the corridor toward the social block, green spaces, light, and the natural surroundings become integral to the experience. Large sliding glass walls and the strategic layout dissolve the boundary between inside and outside. At the same time, the service and rest wings are oriented with discretion, preserving privacy without sacrificing connection to nature.
Why This Project Matters
-
Context first: The architecture honours the site’s agricultural legacy—lemon plantations—and uses it as a design driver rather than a backdrop.
-
Adaptive volumetry: The fragmentation strategy enables the home to respond to terrain, climate, function and view in a coherent yet subtle way.
-
Material honesty and texture: Brick, concrete and steel are used with precision but without spectacle—creating an architecture of presence, not ostentation.
-
Landscape integration: By embedding voids, corridors and green spaces between the volumes, the design makes the environment part of daily living, not an afterthought.
El Limonar House is more than a residence—it is a refined interpretation of how architecture can live within nature while serving modern needs of privacy, gathering and habitat.
