Paire House by Rodolfo Cañas provides shelter for a Chilean family
CategoriesArchitecture

Paire House by Rodolfo Cañas provides shelter for a Chilean family

The tale of Jonah and the Whale informed the design of this house in Chile, which architect Rodolfo Cañas shaped around two gardens.

In the rural town of Pomaire, less than an hour southwest of Santiago, Cañas designed the single-family home to shelter its inhabitants from the elements and the surroundings.

Paire House and rural surroundings viewed from above
Viewed from above, the Paire House looks like an abstract body with limbs that stick out in different directions

The architect likened the shielding quality of the house to the whale that swallowed the prophet Jonah in the biblical story.

“In some ways, the Paire House can be comparable to the whale that protected Jonah during the storm,” said the architect. “In a rural, dry, rugged environment and also close to a highway with a heavy traffic flow, this house works as a container; a protective body, which separates its inhabitants from the hostile environment and makes them look towards a more sheltered interior.”

Entrance through a garden under a canopy
Entry to the home is via a shaded garden

Viewed from above, the house is shaped like an abstract human body with four limbs that protrude at different angles.

Two parallel circulation routes – one public and one private – and a desire to orient rooms towards specific views dictated this unusual layout.

Living room opens on to enclosed garden
A second enclosed garden sits at the centre of the house

Entrance to the property is via a garden to the north, which is shaded by a canopy and landscaped to funnel visitors towards one gate, and the residents to another.

“This forms the cut between the rugged exterior and the sheltered interior of the house,” said Cañas. “It is a covered garden and considers a more controlled natural lighting in order to generate the cut coming from the outside.”

Kitchen and dining room
An open-plan kitchen, dining room and lounge occupies one of the building’s “legs”

The “body” of the house contains a row of four bedrooms that all face an enclosed garden through floor-to-ceiling glass doors.

Guests pass through the garden on their way to the living spaces, while the family can traverse an interior corridor that passes behind the bedrooms.

Bedrooms facing onto garden
Bedrooms face the central garden through floor-to-ceiling glass doors

Light is brought into this passageway via a skylight that protrudes at an angle above the low roofline.

Overlooking the central garden, an open-plan kitchen, dining and lounge area occupies the building’s southwest “leg”.

The primary suite is located in the other, facing southeast. Both open onto terraces that face carefully chosen views of trees in the foreground and hills in the distance.

“The trees are a little misleading when you’re inside, hinting that the outside is wooded and less hostile than it really is,” Cañas explained. “Meanwhile, the nearby hills speak of the real context: a wild and dry environment.”

Paire House at dusk
The home’s layout was dictated by a desire to orient rooms towards particular views

Off the central outdoor space, close to the entry, is another small appendage that contains a games room.

Largely devoid of windows, the exterior walls and internal gardens are wrapped in blackened wood, while interior spaces are minimally decorated and furnished.

Paire House at dusk
The home is clad almost entirely in blackened wood

Charred timber appears to be a popular choice of cladding material for Chilean houses.

Other examples of its use in the country include a home sheathed entirely in blackened pine, an angular mountain cabin and a beach residence comprising stacked volumes.

The photography is by Aryeh Kornfeld.


Project credits:

Architect: Rodolfo Cañas
Builder: Mauricio Fuenzalida
Drawings: Samuel Riveros

Reference

ERRE Arquitectos designs Chilean house overlooking the Pacific Oceans
CategoriesArchitecture

ERRE Arquitectos designs Chilean house overlooking the Pacific Oceans

Chilean studio ERRE Arquitectos has constructed Casa Ferran, a low-profile holiday house in Matanzas on the coast of Chile.

Raimundo Gutiérrez of ERRE Arquitectos designed the 240-square-metre (2,580-square-foot) residence as a U-shape on the edge of a cliff that limits the buildable area of the 2,200-square-metre site, as it drops steeply down to the Pacific Ocean.

Exterior of a one-storey open-plan home with glazed walls overlooking the sea
The home is located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean

Gutiérrez considered three main factors when laying out the plan: creating an exterior zone that is protected from the prevailing southwestern wind, maintaining privacy on the north and south sides, and taking full advantage of the sea views.

To accomplish this, the U-shaped plan points away from the ocean with a protected central courtyard on the high side of the slope, which connects to the sea through the fully glazed common area.

A U-shaped home on a hillside overlooking the sea
The home has a U-shaped layout

“What the project seeks is to generate a transversal and permeable axis in the east-west direction, which connects two exterior areas with dissimilar characteristics through the interior common area,” the studio told Dezeen.

“The rest of the program is arranged to contain and give shape to this axis.”

Interior of an open-plan home with large glass sliding doors opening to decking overlooking the sea
Sliding glass doors in the living area open onto a covered patio

Two wings are located on either side of the central volume – one containing three bedrooms and two planted atriums, the other angled outwards to catch the covered parking area that feeds into the service zones and guest bedroom.

The central volume containing the kitchen, dining, and living spaces is see-through and light-filled, with floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides and sliding glass doors that extend the space onto a covered patio that runs parallel to the sea.

Set on a board-formed concrete foundation, the house is primarily constructed out of black-coloured steel, creating strong framing lines along the form and around the expansive glazing.

The exterior cladding is vertical one-inch by two-inch pine boards that provide a tonal variation along the north and south facades – which are a cut-off diamond shape as the house accommodates the sloped site – and transitions into a lattice for the parking area.

Outdoor garden of an open-plan home with large glass sliding doors overlooking the sea
Black steel forms the home’s structure

On the interior, a soft white palette and warm wood flooring amplify the scale of the rooms and allow the surrounding sea view to be the focal point of each space.

The home’s arrangement brings sunlight into each room, maximizing passive heating from the coastal climate in both the summer and winter.

Interior of an open-plan living space with sliding glass doors leading to a grass garden
Light wood flooring and white painted walls and ceilings finish the interior

“To complement and achieve higher temperatures during the coldest days, there is a wood-burning fireplace in the common space and central heating radiators throughout the house,” the studio said.

The end of each wing has a planted green roof.

“The design responds to elements of organic architecture,” the studio said. “However, formally rigid features appear, which are the result of several variables, conditions and demands that were presented.”

Exterior of a timber-clad home with a sloped roof and rectangular opening
Pine boards clad the exterior

Similar to Casa Ferran, Chilean architect Juan Pablo Ureta designed a beach house on Chile’s northern coast that is oriented around a central courtyard, however, this one opens toward the sea.

In El Pangue, architecture studios Combeau Arquitectura and Andrea Murtagh designed an ocean getaway with clustered gabled forms.

The photography is by Nicolás Saieh.


Project credits:

Architect and constructor: Raimundo Gutiérrez
Structure: Joaquin Valenzuela
Project Manager and carpenter: Guillermo Chamorro

Reference