Z-Balca House reconsiders some of Lagula’s formal and material premises previously used in PGAC. The origin of such questioning comes from the PGAC management itself, who was interested in a non-conventional building and in the use of dry construction technologies.

In a conversation while discussing the conception, the PGAC management reminded us a sentence they saw in a documentary. According to Buckminster Fuller, he once asked Sir Norman Foster: “How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?”

Reconsider the structural and construction origin inevitably implies questioning the formal consequences of our decisions. It would be strange to see a new Tesla vehicle reproducing the (non) aerodynamic shapes of the ancient Ford T. In the same way, new construction technologies need to achieve their own formal expression. Their own beauty canon.

Thus, Z-Balca represents a bet for a new construction technology, and therefore a new shape but with no garish repertoire. Its optimized steel structure enables a recyclable construction, reducing its environmental footprint. The same criteria of lightness, energy optimization, isolation maximization and the use of materials with a second life after the present one are used in almost the totality of the volume.

The selection of zinc as a cladding material was one of the critical decisions of the project. Light and timeless, zinc merges modernity and tradition.