Taller General's Brick Home on Quito Mountainside Uses Thermal Mass for Passive Comfort

Architecture collective Taller General completed Horno de Pan, a progressive residential project on the slopes of Cerro Auqui in Quito, Ecuador. The single-family home uses brick's thermal inertia to regulate temperature in the high-altitude Andean climate, where intense solar radiation gives way to sharp nighttime cold. Load-bearing brick walls and a lowered vaulted roof, reinforced with a thin 3-cm concrete layer for seismic safety, minimize steel and heavy concrete. The home was built in two phases: an initial 48-square-meter footprint (40% of eventual size) allowed inhabitants to test their needs before expansion. Pre-planned cuts in brick walls, temporarily filled with fiber cement sheets, were later removed to create seamless circulation between phases. The first-phase living room became a library; a new platform extends toward the garden. The master bedroom on the second floor captures views of Quito's night lights. The name Horno de Pan (Bread Oven) reflects the warm, orange-hued interior. Taller General drew parallels to the Terracotta Breath project in Vietnam, both using fired earth for passive thermal comfort.