White O / Toyo Ito
Architect: Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
Location: Marbella, Chile
Local Architect: Christian de Groote
Project Area: 370 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Nicolas Saieh
The site for this weekend house slopes gently down to the north-east, and has attractive views in the same direction. This proposal is intended to make dynamic use of the whole site, taking advantage of the special qualities created by this slope. 
The house and site are composed together as a single continuous space, flowing along a spiral movement path, and centered on a partially enclosed garden. The approach to the house rises along the natural line of the slope, drawing visitors toward the rear of the site. Within the inner garden, the slope becomes continuous with the floor of the house, and then flows around and up to the more private areas of the house.
ground floor plan
Beyond the entrance is a spacious living area, which leads on to an adjacent dining area. We expect that the inner garden and the living and dining spaces will be used together, allowing a free indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Further ascending via a gentle ramp which wraps around the inner garden, the interior makes a fluid transition into a private zone containing bedrooms. Floating above the ground, these spaces have complete privacy.
Ascending the slope to the rear of the site, entering the house, and moving through the continuous interior – the house and site composed as a fluid progression of interior and exterior spaces with gradually changing characters and orientations.
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- ground floor plan
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- basement floor plan
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- east elevation
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- north elevation
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- south elevation
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- west elevation
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- section A
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- section B
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- section C
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- section D
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- detailed section 01
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- detailed section 02
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- detailed section 03
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- bathrooms details
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44 comments »
just these furnitures, colors, materials and textures destroys space…
looks like an open grave…where are all the bodies?
“just these furnitures, colors, materials and textures destroys space…”
…must be the stupidest comment ever in arcdaily. houses are not suposed to be somekind of museums-of-space. houses are meant for people to live in, and with people comes their furniture that make the house a home.
we are not creating just spaces, we are creating places for people to live and work and eat and enjoy..
i agree with you! it makes it a home!
I also agree with yours opinions that it’s important to create places for people to live not for anaesthetic people.
have you a web site for look somethings else ?
Mandi
is it a bad design? or bad construction? or bad photography?
And why do you think there’s something bad?
Is there some reason or you just “think so”?
Well I think it’s different, not bad, just different. It is grazing the austere that much is certain, but that is not a bad thing if it conforms to the people that live there, which is the ultimate goal of architecture, to please and fulfill the client’s needs.
The views are definitely a plus.
It’s certainly worth a second look to study the end result.
When people leave their office,hospital or warehouse and see this, they can think that the work never ends.
this building will cause people to lose their minds and kill their fellow man…a pitty, really….some cool spaces though and probably some killer views.
please who made the decoration, what a way to kill space.
corbu is alive……..
While I like the open views to the mountains and the surroundings, it does seem rather transparent and open to the street it fronts on and all sides to its neighbours. Was there no need for any privacy – or is it just about being viewed?
I daresay your idea that the building leaves the inhabitants exposed is short sighted, no pun intended. If you check out the main floor plan you will see that Mr. Ito wisely made allowances for the installation for blinds or shades in the bedrooms. In addition it appears to be pretty spacious where the house is located so I would assume that the neighbors aren’t washing their dishes in your living room. I think this house has many striking areas and some cool concepts to explore such as entering from underneath and ascending into an open courtyard facing both the sky and the building. Altogether as a student of architecture this building is fairly thrilling in that it veers away from conventions of a home and forgive my ignorance but that is something that I have some difficulty facilitating in a meaningful way. I’ll return to the entry way as an example, ultimately the building more specifically the bedrooms create a sort of arch-entry and you enter to the rear of the building through no proper door while being shown through the interior of the house. Which I would say is a private space due to the way the building is elevated and not opened.
Nice quality insitu conc building, a little austere perhaps. The external furniture and tables etc. look a bit “added on” though. I hope the clients are happy with the house as they spent a small fortune no doubt. In my opinion, not Ito’s best house…
I really like the sandblasted corridor facade, looks great!
These collums are horrible placed and als much to big i think.
I remember being very curious when Archdaily featured this house when it was in progress. Honestly, the result is a disappointment to me. Plus, the kitchen seems is just sad. Too bad.
i think the rethinking of living space is really quite wonderful and the concept is extremely well executed.
that aside i do agree with the above opinions that the cheesy and cheap looking interior decoration robs the potential away from the elegance of the design.
great job from toyo ito though!
I’ve seen photos of superyachts (of the motoring type, not the sailers) and they were ugly, every one. No matter how one dressed them up or pared them down, with dramatic lines or utter simplicity, they could not escape their form, giant machine-hotels driving on the sea. Some rare few achieved a measure of beauty, but at the expense of functionality, isolating the occupants amid the sculpting necessary to rescue the form from blunt utility.
But it occurred to me that they were probably a lot of fun to be on, as facilities for being on the sea and enjoying it, looking out, the occupants being the only ones in the vicinity that did not have to suffer the ungainly appearance of the boat.
Perhaps this structure will operate like that.
Very nice but… where is the sustainable design? or is this masterpiece is not on earth?
Niko, did you take pictures of houses on the other side of the road? the house we see from the (ugly) bedroom looks interesting, too..
Zuba, I´d like to see that house too!
In my opinion, there is something to be interesting in this design, in terms of the relation between the interiors themselves and the enviroment.
At least here, in Chile, there’s almost always a pattern in the conception of houses, specially weekend houses. The public spaces (living room, dinning room, terraces), get the privilege views and positions in the composition; while the bedrooms, sometimes exept from the main one, are positioned in a totally secondary context.
I think there’s something in this house that the architect wants to propose, something about the way people here live their houses. Don’t know if that’s meant to be like that or not, but that’s what i get looking at this design.
Cheers from Chile!
This is fantastic….a superb piece of architecture…such an elegant space creation…I would love to have a holiday home like this…..kudos….
he choose very sad day for take the pictures!
Sadly, I couldn’t choose the day. It was scheduled, so I had no choice.
Then please put the suny sky in these photos using PS, please:) joking man. you’ve done a great job.
creative space but i think it’d be better when the ground fills green grass, It’s a house, people should relax in it
would love to be a kid with a bike or a skate living on that house. =)
it is just modyfied replica of U House from 1976
…but U House had strong unity between the form of space and articulation of the interior (it was ONE)…
in building from 2009 this harmony is destroyed by possition of windows and various kinds of furnitures, textures and colors…
this house doesnt look as Itos house, anymore
it is not so conceptual as in his old days…
the effect unfortunatelly
disappointing, Mr.Timo
come check me out on myspace.com dusty dolli it’s pukey
So many dead spaces and tight, unusable spaces. The materials and colours are shockingly un-homely and the entire project looks incomplete. Why would you want a house that consists of tight corridors and ramps? Active spaces are undefined – well, on by poorly selected roomsets of furniture
I normally love Ito’s work but this one isn’t impressive at all, nor is it at the other end of the spectrum in the way of being simple and logical.
Good design, very sad construction
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