House SI / Iragüen Viñuela Arquitectos

Architects:Iragüen Viñuela Arquitectos

Area:187m²

Year:2023

Photographs:Pablo Casals Aguirre

Category:Houses

Design Team:Daniel Iragüen, Claudio Viñuela, Gustavo Schweitzer, Vicente de la Maza, María José Çaldumbide, Alexa Napp, Víctor Cárcamo

Structural Analysis:Roberto Stocker Lagos

Sewer And Drinking Water Project:Marcelo Santibañez

Gas Project:Manuel González Ponce

Topography:Enrique Osorio

Builder:Mario Cuevas

Structural Prefabrication And Machining:Timber Ingeniería

City:Algarrobo

Country:Chile

Text description provided by the architects. They commissioned us to design a first home for a couple relocating from Iquique to Algarrobo, to be closer to their children who live in Santiago and thus be able to see them more frequently. They wanted a relaxed, beach-style house that was easy to inhabit and invited gatherings, where they could comfortably host guests, cook, share meals, watch movies, listen to music, contemplate the horizon, and enjoy nature both as a group and as a couple, or with their granddaughter.

The land is in a rural subdivision on the outskirts of Algarrobo, a development with low planning and regulation, in a somewhat chaotic environment, so our first challenge was to ensure that the house created its own atmosphere, abstracted from the neighbors. Its position at the edge of the development and oriented outward allows for good distant views of the landscape, looking south towards a lush ravine and west towards the sea on the horizon. We took three existing trees of good size as articulators of the project. Along with the commission, these characteristics of the land were our main input.

We proposed the project based on two habitable volumes and a series of outdoor projects that interact with the existing elements of the landscape. The main volume, a single-story structure built in the first stage, is the house for the clients, while the secondary two-story volume, planned for future construction, will be a guest house. To the east, a large wooden deck configures a viewing-access point that connects both habitable volumes and a storage area, enclosing a xerophytic garden around the largest pine tree on the property. To the south, protected by the main house, we placed a pool and wooden terraces that contain a gently sloping garden on the steepest hillside towards the ravine, a position that offers views of the sea and the opposite slope. To the west, we positioned a wooden terrace for contemplating the horizon and the sunset. A series of paths and exterior stairs connect all these elements, creating a circuit that allows enjoyment of the site and nature.

We resolved the main house based on a square floor plan of 13x13 meters and a structural grid of 1x1 meters. This responds to the prefabricated laminated wood construction system we chose and a search for order and variation that we wanted to reflect in the spaces. For example, the secondary beams are placed every strict 50 centimeters, and the perimeter windows and doors are strictly 1 meter. In contrast, the rooms have been dimensioned freely according to the options offered by the grid: 3x3 m, 5x4 m, 5x13 m, etc. The main beams correspond to the shape of the rooms, arranged every 3 or every 2 meters as required. This system allowed us to create an orderly and easy-to-build structure, in addition to providing richness and variety of spaces, ranging from small rooms with one or two orientations to a central space that spans the entire floor plan, with four orientations.

The center of the house, understood as the heart of the project, is the intersection of two visual axes: north/south and east/west. From here, one can dominate the cardinal points, the total depth of the house, the land, and the landscape. The living-dining-kitchen area extends from east to west, while two semi-interior patios flank the dining area, completing the common void from north to south. In the corners of the square, we placed the bedrooms and service rooms, achieving privacy for the users thanks to the central void that separates them. The circulation integrates with the rooms, with a route that crosses the living-dining-kitchen area, along with virtual corridors at the eastern and western ends, parallel to the glazed facades in a row.

We proposed a centralized organization that gives prominence to all the views of the landscape and surroundings, discarding the idea of a linear battery of rooms only oriented towards the sea. This is because we recognized that the view of the sea, not on the front line, could lose its appeal over time due to new constructions and because, additionally, the other views had their own value and were more permanent. We took advantage of the views of the ravine to the south, the tree and garden to the east, and the front garden to the north, in addition to the horizon and the sea to the west. This same design criterion allowed us to make the most of the sea breeze, which activates cross-ventilation at various points, and natural lighting, which enters widely from all orientations at different times.

From the beginning, we conceived this project as a prefabricated work in mechanized laminated wood and pre-constructed partitions. This criterion, which involved working closely with the supplier, reduced construction time and allowed us to avoid interpretation errors in the plans, as the pieces arrived like a large puzzle on site. Following a sustainability criterion, the shorter construction time and almost all works being dry, the point supports that adapt to the natural terrain reduced the impact on the environment, along with the fact that the wood industry, a renewable and biodegradable resource, is increasingly striving to reduce its carbon footprint.

The construction system impacts all dimensions of the project. In addition to the modulation based on a grid, the optimization of construction, and the sustainable aspect, we were interested in the expressive use of wood. The rhythm of the visible structure present in pillars and beams, the presence of diagonals that brace the structure, the slenderness of the elements, and the very texture of the wood endow this house with a unique image, both rational and warm, that is evident from the exterior to the interior and in all its views and rooms.

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