House by the Cautín River
The site is a piece of land with exceptional natural attributes, at the tip of a river peninsula covered by a forest of ancient araucarias, lengas and other native trees, that allows you to immerse yourself in nature.
The commission for this vacation retreat consisted of accommodating 12 people (a family and their guests), who would share two common spaces: a central open space for the whole family and a more casual room for the younger members. In addition, it had to consider two shared bathrooms, storage, utility spaces, and a master plan that would allow convenient access to some unique spots on the plot. Finally, the commission was to reuse a steel and wood platform left over from a failed first construction attempt.
The platform that we recycled defined the plan and position of the house at the tip of the peninsula in a clearing in the forest, at the same time that it allowed to solve part of the program, contemplating two double bedrooms at the ends, the open central common space (living-dining- kitchen), the two bathrooms, storage, an access hall and a covered terrace with a built-in barbecue.
We arranged the program of the ground floor in such a way as to make the most of the views, contemplating a cross-shaped axes with views at its ends towards the four cardinal points. In this way, an east-west axis corridor finish in openings at its ends, while the double facing open central space is open to north (sun) and south (river). In this way the sun enters the house at different times of the day while allowing an exceptional domain of the environment and its views.
On the second floor we have arranged a large room with 8 bunk beds on the sides, which share a central space to host the activities of the younger members.
Finally, we developed a series of platforms that bypass existing trees when entering different corners of the landscape. These platforms allow access to the house and its surroundings regardless of the harsh weather conditions and include a walkway that connects the house with the garage, a large deck that ends in a wooden swimming pool overlooking the river and a second deck enters the forest under huge trees and led to the river and to a wooden hot tub.
The commission was solved through an archetypal silhouette that on the one hand stands out from the nature in which it is immersed, but which at the same time does not want to attract attention since it refers to the architecture that has always been present in the place.
A skin of wooden planks worn by the sun covers the main facades, borrowing from the way in which the cattle sheds in the area are lined and the gray tone of the tree bark. The interior of the house completely covered in black wood allows a great contrast with the white winter and green summer landscape and offers an atmosphere of introspection and calm according to the vocation of shelter.
Finally the house offers a relaxed use of the spaces and the enjoyment of the impressive nature of the Andes in La Araucanía in Chile.
