3-Element House / Tomás Swett

Architects: Tomás Swett
Location: Santiago, Chile
Collaborator: Juan Ignacio Diaz
Engineer: Alex Popp
Project Area: : 485 sqm
Photographs: Felipe Fontecilla, Tomas Swett

Building a new house in a land where there was an existing one floor house of 300 square meters, keeping only 50% of the construction and demolishing the rest, was the client´s requirement because of the poor state of the original house and its location in the land.

Part of the client’s requirements was to get a new image house, creating a new access associated with a courtyard, living spaces connected with outside areas and an independent main room with views to the landscape.

With these 3 requirements, we proposed to work with two main operations. First, a few first floor extensions should define several programmatic courtyards as an entrance area, barbecue area, garden and playground. Second, almost all the new program should be on the second floor to release the land, with a new building material which creates a new image of the house.

With the first operation, we defined different programmatic areas in a continuous garden. We projected a new living room and terrace area, defining a barbecue and a pool zone. Also, we extended the bedrooms area and we defined a playground area and a private terrace.

In the second operation, we worked with 3 stone elements to give a new look to the house which brook to the flat geometry of the original house. These 3 elements defined a double-height entrance, a second interconnected living room with an outdoor terrace and finally, the main room as an icon volume, dominating the garden and landscape.