The Chilean couple had originally envisioned a single-storey house that would be connected to the adjacent lake. There was just one problem: the first time Iván Bravo, founder of Iván Bravo architects and the lead on the project, visited the site in Futrono, he could see neither the lake nor the view of the southern Chilean mountain peaks – the site had been left untouched for so long that the vegetation had completely taken over.
»The lake was only 20 metres away, but all the undergrowth made it impossible to find. We discovered a small stream that we were able to use as a reference point to locate the lake,« says Iván Bravo.
Keeping the surrounding forest untouched
Following some thorough clearing work, the surrounding forest presented itself so beautifully that they wanted to keep it as untouched as possible. Trees and larger shrubs were left, and the lake was given a single access point from the house, where a path runs down to a nearby inlet that invites you to swim or sit and watch the wildlife.
»The client and her daughter fell in love with all the different birds and insects on the lake shore, so it was important to preserve as much as possible. Using the stream, we also created a little lagoon just below the house,« says Iván Bravo.
This would also influence the design of the building. With a single-storey building, they would have to open up more of the small forest they wanted to protect, to reveal the view of the lake. To keep the forest untouched while at the same time capturing the view, they instead built an 11-metre-tall house, shaped like a cube with two sides folded down to form an angled monopitch roof. The angle gives the building a triangular geometry from some sides, which also reduces the scale and allows it to more subtly rise up out of the landscape. Thanks to the greystained wood on the façade, the house now blends in beautifully with its surroundings, and on mornings that are heavy with mist, it forms an almost seamless transition between nature and architecture.
One of the two square façades faces the lake, with its many windows giving views of the lake and directing the gaze towards viewpoints further away on the horizon. The second square façade has 2.2-metre-high windows along the ground floor dining room but is otherwise closed. The other sides are even more closed, giving the building a protective feel while not letting in excessive heat during the summer months. But this also makes the management of light very important in the building, explains Iván Bravo:
»By not opening everything up, you can experience the world in different ways and follow the different times of the day by the light. On the open lower floor in particular, where we only have the long window at ground level supplemented by the light from the skylight three floors up, it’s important to make the light work with the space.«
Architecture based on separate and shared areas
The architecture is based on two opposites: separate and shared. The clients had been together for many years and had chosen to live close to each other but in separate apartments in the capital Santiago. This holiday home was to be their first home together, and while they still wanted their own personal space, the shared area was important because they often have friends and their respective children visiting and want to be able to bring everyone together. One half of the house is therefore private, while the other half is for social interaction – and it is open from the ground floor all the way up to the peak of the roof.
»The only place where you can experience the full height of 11 metres is in the living room and dining room, so basically half of the house is full height and the other half is divided into three floors, with a top floor that’s double height,« says architect Martín Rojas.
A long table made from a fallen larch tree extends over almost the entire surface of the ground floor to accommodate many seated guests at once.
»Although they wanted a private part and a division between them, they kept coming back to the possibility of sharing, not only with each other but with their children and guests. And I think that influenced the design a lot; that they want to share their sociable moments with other people. Here you have the open and the public on the one hand, and the private on the other, but you also have an intimacy between the different parts,« explains Iván Bravo.
The two main bedrooms are upstairs, one for her, one for him and positioned opposite each other to provide a degree of closeness – a sense of being together without encroaching on each other’s independence. The very top of the house opens up into a study, where the double height ceiling bears witness to both the geometry and the scale of the building. The triangular shape of the top helps not only to shrink the exterior impression of the house, but to create the intimate feeling that is so important in such a large house.
»On the top floor, there is a point where the ceiling is only 170 centimetres high, so you can touch it as you pass. Then you take a few steps out from the wall and it opens up to five metres again. This gives the house an inner balance, and it is precisely this possibility to compare larger and smaller spaces that creates the varying scale,« says Martín Rojas.
Common and cheap to use wood
As one of the cheapest building materials in Chile, wood is widely used in buildings, and it was also the client’s preference, mainly for the cost but also for aesthetic reasons.
»We haven’t done much to the wood, other than sawing it to the right size. We kept the raw surface which we then stained plank by plank. We don’t always use the stiff boards that come from the better parts of the trunk, because that’s also more expensive. For façades we use the outer part of the trunk, which is cheaper because it’s less useful for construction purposes,« says Martín Rojas.
The rugged feel is echoed in the interior, where the concrete floors contrast with the exposed wood on the walls. The slightly worn look was already there when the couple moved in and is fully intentional, explains Iván Bravo. People should be okay to walk in with dirty shoes and not feel like they are making a mess or getting the house dirty:
»We want our buildings to feel a little ... well, almost a little used, so they have their character right from the start. If it’s all too immaculate and sophisticated, it quickly feels outdated and old in the wrong way. Our houses should be able to handle spontaneous living, homes should be soft and open to everyday life.«