Lo Cañas House / Francisco Abarca and Camilo Palma

Architects: Francisco Abarca and Camilo Palma
Location: Lo Cañas, La Florida, Santiago, Chile
Team: Roberto Torres, Omar Rivera, Carlos Lepe
Project Year: 2009
Year Built: 2009-10
Land Area: 2500 sqm
Built area: 120 sqm and 80 sqm terrace inside
Materials: Wood and Steel
Photographs: Camilo Palma, Eugenio Celedón

A family home, first home, situated on a plot of fruit trees of various species, arranged in a grid of 5 x 5 meters accompanied by an irrigation system through canals that cross the earth in allits length, each separated also 5 meters.

The house is inserted in this environment through the use of the spaces between the edges, orshaped space under the eaves on the east, the north terrace and the corridor to the west. The inner courtyard is presented as the intermediate space inside the instrument of order, light, vision and organization of the exhibition.

The way in which the floor of the house responds to the relationship of these spaces betweenthe fabric of existing trees to cut less trees as possible and to categorize these spaces with the presence of each tree, so the deck is built between two trees and the inner courtyard allows the continuation of an existing walnut.

The relationship between the housing section and the volume corresponds to the need to develop a unifying roof, which allows the entry of the sun and protects through the operation of raising or lowering the ceiling levels. Wood is the material that makes up the entire house, which was chosen because of its cost, quality, tectonics and speed the construction processby 3 people. The structure is made of pine walls into two categories, interior and exterior, 2 “x4″ and 2 “x 5″, respectively.