La Huerta House / Estudio Base Arquitectos

Architects:Estudio Base Arquitectos

Area:250m²

Year:2019

Photographs:Cristian Espinosa

Manufacturers:AutoDesk,Adobe,Behr,CHC,Dellorto,RAABCHILE,Topwood,Trimble

Lead Architects:Cristian Larraín, Gonzalo Ramírez

Engineering:José Manuel Morales

City:Vitacura

Country:Chile

Text description provided by the architects. La Huerta House is located in the eastern sector of the city of Santiago. It is characterized by being a corner site, this allows the house to have two facades that are exposed to the street.

The commission was to remodel a one floor house, incorporate a second floor and design the outdoor spaces; As the land is located in a corner, we wanted to project a pure volume with a wooden covering that contrasts with the materiality of the first floor and from the outside it will simulate floating on the ground like a wooden box. This "wooden box" that contains the program of children's bedrooms and living room, is exposed to the sun on its four faces, based on this, the bedrooms and living room have a north-east orientation, leaving the west as a watertight facade to avoid the sun in the hottest hours.

For the outdoor terraces, we incorporate the same wood cladding making the spaces look unified and connected to each other. At the entrance of the house we project a double height access, with an upper window that looks north to the Manquehue hill, which naturally illuminates the space and frames the landscape through it. Wood was a key element when designing the project, this contributed to the warmth of the terrace spaces on the first and second floors, in addition to fulfilling a function of thermal insulation; since it is a ventilated facade and helps to control the temperature inside the space. For this facade we use 1x4” thermo treated pine wood for its color and finish characteristics.

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