House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 2 of 32House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Interior Photography, Living Room, Sofa, Table, BeamHouse I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 4 of 32House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 5 of 32House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - More Images+ 27

Santiago, Chile
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  3229 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Lead Architects: Alfredo Thiermann - Sebastián Cruz
  • Team: Rafael Urcelay
  • Structural Engineering : Osvaldo Peñaloza
  • Builder: Constructora Antumalal
  • City: Santiago
  • Country: Chile
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House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 2 of 32
© Erieta Attali

Text description provided by the architects. Good houses are artifacts that are crafted to conquer land as much as they are devoted to distance their inhabitants – as much as possible – from it. This was clear in Chile since the time of the colonies, and one of the few truly Chilean inventions, the so-called Casa Chilena or Chilean house, is the built manifestation of this. It embodies the specific typology of a courtyard house used to organize the territory based on agricultural production, but also a specific kind of domestic life detached from it. 

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Interior Photography, Facade
© Erieta Attali
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 21 of 32
Ground floor plan (A2 esc. 1-100)
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 19 of 32
© Erieta Attali

And it embodied a circular time that organized cyclical rituals around the courtyards, galleries and enfilades, parallel to the cyclical time that structured agricultural production. Since the second half of the 19th century, this type faded away, not so much because of the obsolescence of its spatial configuration, but more due to the banishment of the specific kind of life and land that it previously organized.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Interior Photography, Wood, Chair, Beam
© Erieta Attali
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 25 of 32
Section C (A4 esc. 1-100)
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 4 of 32
© Erieta Attali

Addressing a different type of land—and life—this house is located in a former suburban lot, now subdivided into three smaller pieces. This process of densification exemplifies how an urban configuration expands outwards in Santiago, colonising and occupying previous strictly suburban land. The house occupies the 20 by 40-meter plot with a thin 4.8-meter bar, subdividing the property into a series of different courtyards.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 17 of 32
© Erieta Attali

Each interior space is connected, at least, with two exteriors, which are treated, simultaneously, as interiors though their large built furniture and materiality. Negotiating the irregular shape of the plot with the regular geometry of the house, its limit is set back a few meters behind the property line, and a walled courtyard elbows out from the continuous line defining the sidewalk.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Interior Photography, Beam
© Erieta Attali

Overcoming the regulations promoting a garden city, the façade becomes a walled courtyard, bringing life to the edge of the otherwise life-less suburban street.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Interior Photography, Living Room, Sofa, Table, Beam
© William Rojas
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 22 of 32
First floor plan (A2 esc. 1-100)
House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 5 of 32
© Erieta Attali

A calibrated system of sliding and pivoting doors mediates life in the house. They enhance various forms of connection and disconnection between interiors and exteriors, but also between interiors and interiors. Through doors, two widely used architectural reductions are overcome: the open plan and the corridor.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 6 of 32
© Erieta Attali

Doors allow subdivision and differentiation, but also flexibility and contamination among domestic programs. Kitchen, dining and living rooms, and patios can be combined into a single space or can be temporary divided depending on the season or whatnot.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 8 of 32
© Erieta Attali

The interior surfaces of the suspended volume are defined by a weaving of different kinds of wood, creating a relentless repetition of constructive elements covering walls, floors, and ceilings. 5-centimetre thick prefabricated black concrete panels hang from the wooden structure rendering the house completely opaque to the exterior. Similar to the residence that Des Esseintes designed for himself in Joris-Karl Huysmans’s novel: the fun remains in the interior.

House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos - Image 15 of 32
© Erieta Attali

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Cite: "House I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos" [Casa I / Thiermann Cruz Arquitectos] 12 Aug 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/922801/house-i-thiermann-cruz-arquitectos> ISSN 0719-8884

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