Casa Pueblomio sits in Manantiales, Punta del Este, Uruguay, where KLM architects work with slope, wind, and light to shape a coastal house. The project anchors itself half a level into the ground, turning terrain, patios, and planted edges into buffers between domestic life and the wider gated community. Concrete and natural wood frame everyday routines against a calm landscape, with upper-level rooms pulled back for privacy and long views.

Low coastal light washes across a concrete plinth that seems to grow out of the Manantiales earth. From the garden edge, the upper timber volume reads as a quieter element, slightly withdrawn yet clearly in command of the view.

This house in a gated community in Manantiales, Punta del Este, is a single-family home by KLM architects, planned as a careful intervention into sloping ground and wind. The project centers on partial embedding of the main level, using earth, patios, and level changes as mediators between landscape, climate, and daily use. Concrete, natural wood, and open courtyards work together so the house can stand firm against southern winds while staying visually and physically connected to its surroundings.

Settling Into The Terrain

The first move cuts into the natural terrain and drops the house half a level, forming a contained platform that organizes all primary uses. This intervention is not only about hiding mass; it sets the datum from which garden, patios, and interior rooms align, creating a calm horizon for everyday routines. Edges of this platform become thresholds where retaining walls, planted strips, and terraces negotiate between the domestic interior and the wider community beyond.

Courtyards As Buffer

Around the embedded ground floor, a sequence of patios runs like a loose belt between interior rooms and lot boundaries. Each patio acts as a buffer, softening the transition from private life to neighboring plots without closing down light or views. These outdoor rooms also temper the coastal climate, shielding the house and its garden from harsh southern winds while still allowing cross ventilation and sun. Families move between social areas and these protected courtyards with minimal threshold, so the boundary between inside and outside remains thin but controlled.

Everyday Life On The Ground

The main program concentrates on the ground floor, where social rooms, service areas, and secondary bedrooms sit in close dialogue with the garden. Large openings line this level so living, dining, and circulation spill visually onto the patios and green edges, turning the entire platform into a continuous living ground. Here, the plan favors clear routes instead of decorative gestures, allowing inhabitants to move intuitively from shared rooms to quieter corners and out toward the landscape.

An Elevated Retreat

Above the concrete base, a more contained volume in natural wood gathers the master suite and an intimate TV room. This upper body is set apart conceptually and physically, working as a retreat with greater privacy and more open views over the surroundings. Its position on top of the embedded plinth heightens the sense of refuge, while the reduced program keeps this level calm, almost introverted, compared with the active ground floor below.

Concrete, Wood, And Weather

Material choices stay simple and clear, aligning with the coastal climate and long-term aging of the house. Reinforced concrete forms exposed walls that bring solidity and a certain austerity, standing up to wind and salt air without fragility. Above, natural wood cladding gives warmth and a more organic texture, left untreated so it can weather into a grayish tone that sits easily alongside the concrete. As seasons pass, this slow transformation keeps the house in quiet dialogue with light, humidity, and the broader Uruguayan landscape.

On any given day, the experience of Casa Pueblomio is defined as much by patios, wind shadows, and level changes as by rooms and furniture. The partial embedding, the controlled courtyards, and the measured mix of concrete and timber allow the house to protect itself while staying open to garden and sky. In Manantiales, it reads as a grounded coastal dwelling that trusts terrain, climate, and time to finish the work started on the drawing board.