Tiles strung on steel cables and an inverted roof are among the quirky design features of this home designed by architect Daniel Moreno Flores on the outskirts of Quito.

Casa de las Tejas Voladoras, or House of Flying Tiles, was completed last year in the town of Pifo for Ecuadorian illustrator Emilia Andrade.
It draws its name from the screen that wraps the south and east sides of the home, as well as multiple angular tiled-surfaces that were finished in the same material.

"We seek to make spaces that are discovered, to be traversed in order to experience the house," said Quito's Moreno Flores.  "From the arrival to the house, we sought to have a recognisable abstract defined volume ? a metallic structure is assembled that hangs old and new tiles." An opening in the suspended tiles leads to the main entrance, which brings visitors into the compact dwelling's open-plan living space.

The trapezoidal outline of the roof is visible within the interior spaces. Moreno-Flores likens the structure to a Roman impluvium, an angled roof designed to shed rainwater towards a catchment basin.
"The mother volume that covers the entire house is configured as an impluvium with a light on its lower side," the studio said. "In the equinoxes, light will enter the opening vertically."

A ladder leads up to this opening so that that the owner can hang out within the stepped shape of the roof.  Providing spaces for contemplation was an important part...