A revolutionary residential project has emerged on the slopes of Ilaló, Ecuador, where Rama Estudio has created the House of the Rolling Rooms, a 140-square-meter home that challenges traditional construction methods in rural areas. Designed for a young couple with a conscious approach to living, this innovative dwelling serves as a conscious alternative to conventional building models in urban expansion zones, integrating seamlessly with the natural environment through respectful and economical means.
The project's primary strategy involved carefully reading the land's natural characteristics, including topography, orientation, views, and existing vegetation. Rather than modifying the slope, the architects adapted the building's volume to follow the natural contour lines, avoiding any cuts or fills to the terrain. The foundation and first walls are constructed from local stone, providing essential thermal mass and creating visual continuity with the surrounding environment. Above this stone base rises a rammed earth wall, utilizing an ancestral technique of stabilized compacted earth that serves multiple functions: structural support, thermal regulation, and programmatic organization.
Under a large sloped roof supported by the rammed earth wall and a laminated wood structure, the house creates a continuous and flexible living space. This expansive roof not only provides protection from the elements but also enables multiple forms of use throughout the interior. The house deliberately features no fixed partitions, with everything organized around a central service wall and a series of movable elements that can transform the space according to the inhabitants' needs and preferences.
The most distinctive feature of the house is its two large rolling wooden boxes that contain the private spaces. One box houses a master bedroom complete with closets and a dressing table, while the second functions as a study that doubles as a television room with a built-in sofa bed. These innovative boxes can move freely within the volume, allowing for different spatial configurations depending on the situation: opening up for social gatherings, closing for privacy, or reorganizing according to light conditions, climate, or the inhabitants' mood.
The living areas consist of low modules with movable backs, while the dining room features a rolling table paired with lightweight chairs. The kitchen island serves as the only fixed element in the space and acts as a visual anchor point. All services are cleverly housed between the buttresses of the rammed earth wall, which frees up the rest of the floor plan for flexible use.
The house establishes a sophisticated relationship with its surroundings, protecting views to the north while opening dramatically to the south toward the valley landscape through a continuous deck. There is no single defined main entrance, as access flows naturally throughout the structure, effectively blurring the traditional boundary between architecture and landscape.
An independent volume houses a pottery workshop, intentionally separated from the main dwelling to differentiate creative activity from domestic life. This workshop is positioned on the slope without any terrain modification and connects to the main complex through carefully designed stone walkways that integrate parking, stairs, storage areas, and garden spaces.
The landscape design envisions the property as an extension of the local ecosystem, featuring native plant species, minimal lawn areas, and a garden fully integrated into the living system. Water management incorporates infiltration systems, separation techniques, and biological treatment methods, all complemented by both thermal and photovoltaic solar energy systems.
More than simply a house, this project functions as a tool for adaptable and conscious living. It represents a living architecture in constant transformation, one that responds dynamically to environmental conditions, the passage of time, and the evolving needs of its inhabitants. The House of the Rolling Rooms demonstrates how innovative architectural thinking can create spaces that are both environmentally responsible and highly functional for modern living.
