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Residencia Rodríguez
San Juan Puerto Rico, 1946
Toro Ferrer y Torregrosa
Exhibition by AACUPR
in English and Spanish
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View from the garden ¥ Terrace
Living room ¥ Dining room
It is in domestic architecture that Toro Ferrer and Torregrosa best developed a tropical grammar for their architecture. In their early work one can see their interest in adapting the new architecture to the environmental conditions of the Island. The arrangement of spaces in plan, the emphasis given to cross-ventilation, the need for natural illumination and the constant search to integrate the living space with the gardens and natural spaces are but a few of the elements shared in the domestic architecture of Toro and Ferrer.
The house in Caparra for Guillermo Rodríguez, then president of the Puerto Rico Development Bank, is a clear example of the architectural intentions of Toro and Ferrer. Designed in 1946, it was then considered revolutionary architecture. The house shows a definite change in the residential designs done by the firm.
The floor plan for the Rodríguez House is different from what the firm had produced. In this project, the architects integrated the front garden to the rear patio with the use of the circulation of the house. Once you leave the front garden and reach the entrance door to the house, one is immediately pulled to the rear garden by large glass sliding doors and a lily pond in the dining room. This in fact, fulfilled the clientÕs wishes for a house where the exterior penetrated the interior.
From the exhibition panels
Caribe Hilton ¥ Residencia Rodríguez ¥ Oficinas Legislativas ¥ Corte Suprema
Toro Ferrer y Torregrosa 1945-1955
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