![Casa el Polo / Juan Cristóbal Valenzuela Leighton y Eduardo Rivera Barros Arquitectos - Facade, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5073/8316/28ba/0d7b/2c00/015e/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1361417527)
- Area: 374 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:J. Cristóbal Valenzuela L
Text description provided by the architects. This house is located in a suburban condominium in the north area of Santiago. Each dwelling unit has a land plot of 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), so that public space tends to be inert and reduced to wide streets designed exclusively for car transportation.
![Casa el Polo / Juan Cristóbal Valenzuela Leighton y Eduardo Rivera Barros Arquitectos - Image 6 of 17](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5073/82f7/28ba/0d7b/2c00/0156/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1361075837)
The lot in which the house is located is large and flat, with clean views in all directions, including the hills surrounding the area. Because it is preceded by a triangular-shaped esplanade facing the intersection of two streets, the site feels even larger than it is.
![Casa el Polo / Juan Cristóbal Valenzuela Leighton y Eduardo Rivera Barros Arquitectos - Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5073/82f4/28ba/0d7b/2c00/0155/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1361075833)
From this perspective, the proposal consists of inhabiting the extension through the construction of a boundary, so the house turns out to be the background of the esplanade and because there is no fencing it helps to blur the division between public and private space.
![Casa el Polo / Juan Cristóbal Valenzuela Leighton y Eduardo Rivera Barros Arquitectos - Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5073/82fa/28ba/0d7b/2c00/0157/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1361075840)
With this goal in mind, the project is based on a reinforced concrete wall that runs east–west across the wider section of the lot, on top of which a two-story white volume was built. This linear layout determines a two-faced house: a north façade with all rooms oriented towards the sun with views to the private garden, and a south façade towards the exterior with deployed walls, allowing observers to have a glimpse of what happens inside the house and vice versa.
![Casa el Polo / Juan Cristóbal Valenzuela Leighton y Eduardo Rivera Barros Arquitectos - Image 13 of 17](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5073/8378/28ba/0d7b/2c00/0163/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1361075878)