Type: Beach House
Year: 2020
Location: Condominio Agua Dulce, Canela, Region de Coquimbo
Area: 500m2 interior / 600m2 exterior
Collaborator: Javier Lorenzo
Construction: Diego Román / A + Arq y Construcción
Structure: Enzo Valladares / VPA ingeniería estructural
CNC machined laminated wood: www.timber.cl
Lighting Design: Gonzalo Saez / SV-LIGHTING
Ito: Jose Correa / Ito Optimiza
Landscape Design: Rebeca Urrutia
MEP Services: Dicyp
Photograph: ©Sergio Pirrone

The Project consists of a second home for the grandparents of the family, the idea is to share with all their children and grandchildren at the same time on this house. The site is located on a privileged rocky point facing the sea about 300 kilometers north of Santiago, where It could be evidenced that the Chilean desert begins. The terrain presents a gentle slope and is covered by clusters of native vegetation such as creeping scrub and cactus of important ecological value that are key to preserve.

The main strategy is to recognize and locate densities of native vegetation, this is done with a high resolution ortho photograph grouping the vegetation in circumferences of different diameters. 25 circumferences are recognized seeking to understand the value of the densities of the native vegetation of the site. The 25 circumferences resuting shape is extruded as a plinth where the house is built on. Over this plinth, the house is composed by 6 pavilions accompanied by a curved wooden doble skin that protects them from the predominant southern wind and contains the inhabitants in an intermediate space, connector and built pathway. The pavilions are structured in CNC machined laminated wood.

In this way, the plinth´s form is a result of the voids generated by the circumferences located on the site, the 6 pavilions are located according to the main views and orientations. Also, the pavilions host different programs and spaces, that are connected with each other by the plinth and the double wooden curved skin.

The house materiality is exposed concrete with table formwork. The interior spaces sum up about 500 m2, on the other hand, the terraces and plinth platform more than 600m2. This disproportion between the interior and exterior space dimensions is one of the assets that add more value to the project, as it creates diverse experiences related to the range of geographical situations offered by the site.

The central pavilion and the main bedroom rise above the sea as if on a ship, the rest of the bedrooms hide among the vegetation towards the rear of the site opening at the same time views towards the sea. In the central pavilion, a large yellow-stained laminated wood beam 26 meters long x 80 cm high and 18 cm thick stands out.

The pool and the hot tub where design to be hidden between the vegetation and the reflection of the sea in the mirror-like pool.