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Architects: Lépore & Salvini - Arquitectura & Atelier
- Area: 3520 ft²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Victoria E. Sierra King
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Lead Architect: Julieta Lépore
Text description provided by the architects. Located in a corner of the highest blocks in the south of Mar del Plata, in the San Carlos neighborhood, this family home, designed for a famous landscaper of the city and his wife, is brought to life. The morphology of the volume was inspired by the powerful panoramic views all around. In front of the house, the Atlantic Ocean in all its immensity has two unique details: the first one being toward the south, where the sea breaks on a cliff; and the second one, ‘La Restinga’, situated to the northeast, where the last stretch of the ‘Tandilia’ mountain chain submerges into the sea.
The initial project decision was to frame this panoramic view into two ‘photographs’, so the volume built on the upper floor took the shape of a ‘Greek Y’. Two of the ends are canyons that frame the landscape: Towards the break and the ‘Restinga’. To generate this, the common spaces like the kitchen, dining and living room, and the master bedroom were located on the upper floor. Leaving the rest of the rooms in the house, such as the garage, laundry room, and guest bedroom, located on the ground floor, hidden among the vegetation.
The morphological arrangement also resolved the protection of the garden and terraces towards the sun. From the southeast to the northeast, the house is sheltered from the strong and cold winds of the city of Mar del Plata, allowing the terraced gardens to make use of the sun and the different plant species to evolve favorably.
The garden in front, composed of plants of native species, ties the house to the earth, roots it and offers it to the natural urban landscape of the area, to its unique natural cliffs that were formed over time by sediments from the Andes Mountains that traveled through the wind. Some local grasses trapped these sediments that layer by layer formed the cliffs. Geology, landscaping and architecture dance together in this home.
