Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Facade, GardenPirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows, Facade, GardenPirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Waterfront, ForestPirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Image 5 of 30Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - More Images+ 25

Panguipulli, Chile
  • Architects: Alejandro Aravena: Alejandro Aravena, Jorge Christie, Victor Oddó
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  350
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2004
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Cristobal Palma
Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Facade, Garden
© Cristobal Palma

Text description provided by the architects. We were asked to design a summer/winter house in a remote landscape in the most southern part of Chile. More than a design, the client wanted, first of all, an equation that included every possible aspect that one could consider to be included; the design then had to be just the resolution of that equation.

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows, Facade, Garden
© Cristobal Palma

A volcanic site, 4.000 mm of rain every year, strong winds from the north and east, views towards the lake (east) and the forest (west), considerations of the difficulty of bringing materials to this remote place, erasure of any a priori architectural language (be it old or contemporary) were the ingredients of this unknown dish, that should have the capacity to sound familiar once developed.

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Image 27 of 30
First Floor Plan
Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows, Forest
© Cristobal Palma
Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Image 26 of 30
Second Floor Plan

Being the weather condition very extreme, we started taking as less risk as possible; that's why we began from the double sloped conventional roof. Slowly, we moved on, deforming it, looking for the views, avoiding the winds, using the frame windows as the arriving or starting points of the slopes. 

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows
© Cristobal Palma

This acceptance-rejection logic of the operations, explain the geometry of the second floor; the first floor on the contrary, is a dry resistance box, able to deal with earthquakes and with the solitude this type of houses have to deal with, great part of the year.

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows, Facade
Section

Stones and wood came from the clearence made in the site for the house. The darkness of the object, will be a way to restitute the original density of the place.

Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena - Windows, Facade
© Cristobal Palma

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Cite: "Pirihueico House / Alejandro Aravena" 09 May 2008. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/551/pirihueico-house-alejandro-aravena> ISSN 0719-8884

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