Photographer: Felipe Camus | ArchDaily

Extreme Architecture: Challenges and Solutions in Inhospitable Environments

Eduardo Souza — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

"In various regions of the planet, nature imposes adverse conditions on the human body. In these places, designing a building is almost like creating a garment: an artifact that protects and offers comfort. This challenge requires technological performance that must be combined with aesthetics. Making human beings feel good involves more than just meeting notions of comfort and safety; it's also a question of working with spaces in their symbolic and perceptual dimensions." This is the beginning of the description for the design of the Brazilian Antarctic Station in Antarctica, by Estúdio 41, located on the Keller Peninsula, where the surrounding sea freezes for around six to seven months of the year, where everything and everyone arrives by plane or ship and the nearest hardware store is days away. If designing a building in normal circumstances already presents numerous complexities, it's not hard to imagine the additional challenges when developing something in an extreme environment, such as locations with very high or low temperatures, or in places susceptible to corrosion, radiation, and more. In this article, we will explore the difficulties, the main solutions and the materials used in these contexts.

The Project as Argument: What is Architectural Thinking?

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture is shaped not only by buildings, but by the ideas that make them possible. Before the constraints of capital, regulation, and procurement, there is a moment when architecture is allowed to think aloud. The first confrontation with this fertile moment usually takes place in academia, in the thesis. It is not merely a requirement for graduation, but a space of speculative freedom where architecture formulates hypotheses, builds arguments, and tests positions.

Mumo Museum Of Motorcycles / DRAA

Andreas Luco — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 15:00:00 +0000

We were commissioned to design a museum to house the country’s largest collection of antique motorcycles, prior to the corporate dominance of the scene in the 1970s.

Patagonian Shadow Pavilion / DRAA

Benjamin Zapico — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 14:00:00 +0000

A particular cultural mix has provided a series of unexpected suspended objects to the Patagonian landscape. Structures that are seemingly useless or at best oversized with a single cover become landmarks, indicating ownership or marking the way.

Spotlight: Peter Zumthor

AD Editorial Team — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Known for his sensuous materiality and attention to place, 2009 Pritzker Laureate Peter Zumthor (born April 26, 1943) is one the most revered architects of the 21st century. Shooting to fame on the back of The Therme Vals and Kunsthaus Bregenz, completed just a year apart in 1996 and 1997, his work privileges the experiential qualities of individual buildings over the technological, cultural and theoretical focus often favored by his contemporaries.

Komorebi House / DRAA

Pilar Caballero — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 19:00:00 +0000

House Komorebi Is a single-family dwelling designed for rent, a typology that has become common in the area and that carries the challenge to design for an anonymous but identifiable user, mostly young families moving from central to southern Chile. The office was commissioned with the full extent of the assignment; from finding the site, identifying potential users, to the architectural proposal and following to the construction overview, giving us the opportunity to face it as a holistic approach.

Aviary and Stable Park El Encanto / DRAA

Pilar Caballero — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 02:00:00 +0000

Following an invitation from the landscaping office DEL RIO SUR we were asked to propose a masterplan and installations for an animal Park in the north side of the Rupanco Lake, a pristine rural location with views to various geographical landmarks.

Charred Cabin / DRAA

Karen Valenzuela — Sat, 25 May 2019 15:00:00 +0000

Commissioned as a mountain hideout, the Charred Cabin settles on a rather unusual location for Santiago inhabitants. Before the automobile era, a winding road linked the capital and the port across the Coastal Range. The area is full of historic places that recall the early years. Derelict Monuments, battle sites, gold mines remain nowadays abandoned.

Shangri-la Cabin / DRAA + Magdalena Besomi

Rayen Sagredo — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 09:00:00 +0000

Shangri-la Cabin is the first of a series of elevated mountain cabins designed to populate a tall native woodland. Trees dating various centuries can be found in the plot delimited by a 100-meters vertical basalt face and a stream.

La Dacha Mountain Hut / DRAA

Rayen Sagredo — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Located among native woodland overlooking the impressive Nevados de Chillan volcanic complex, La Dacha Mountain Hut is the result of a site-specific design that combines space programming with high thermal efficiency.
Towering above the canopy, the vertical V shaped dwelling aims to follow the sun path with generous openings towards the north and west.

21 Detailed Construction Sections for Wood Structures

José Tomás Franco — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 09:00:00 +0000

Wood is one of the oldest materials that man has used to build their homes and take refuge from the weather. Wood does not only fulfill a structural function -being highly resistant to earthquakes-, but it also provides interior thermal comfort, as well as adding a warm look and feel to a building, while easily adapting to natural environments.

VPVC Office / DRAA

Daniela Cardenas — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:00:00 +0000

The VPVC office is a project commissioned to solve the demanding layout for a new bureau of lawyers, located in a single 500 sqm story of a translucent curtain-wall building with a single central circulation core in Santiago. Our proposal resulted the winner in a private competition.

Puritama Thermal Bath / Germán del Sol

Daniel Sánchez — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This thermal river flows generously in a secluded valley, 30 miles from the small town of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. In its long course, it creates many natural pools that have been used to bathe in since ancient times, as the two existing Inca houses prove.

La Leonera Mountain Retreat / DRAA

Igor Fracalossi — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 01:00:00 +0000

Commission

House at Punta Chilen / dRN Architects

Andrew Rosenberg — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Unlike the abrupt topography of continental Chile, the soft slopes and the extended horizon of the Island of Chiloé defines a distinct landscape. Constant rains, strong winds and a tidal variation of up to eight meters, characterize its harsh and always changing shores. The site, located in the tip of a peninsula facing the northeast, offers an open view at 360º. On a clear day seven volcanoes can be identified at the distant background of the Andes, most of them, like the Chaitén Volcano, are still active. The house lies as a strange element in the shore, an unfamiliar object resting on the site, as if it was ready to take off with a strong wind. Its undefined geometry is not attached to the ground, the connections to its terrain are defined by its interior views to the outside. On the first floor a rhythmic repetition of wood columns carries the structure to the perimeter, liberating part of the floor plan. This over structured density of columns fragments the views of the surroundings, while its moving shadows change the interiors throughout the day.

Los Molles House / Oltmann Ahlers W. + Oltmann Ahlers G. + dRN Arquitectos

Amber P — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Not having a direct view of the ocean allowed us to place this weekend house facing a less expected landscape. The open panorama of the Pacific Ocean has been replaced by an enclosed orientation towards a group of trees and the coastal hills of the east. These preexisting conditions characterized the site as a contained backyard, which appeared to be an ideal situation to take distance from the life of the beach. The requirements of the brief were defined by the “minimum” needs of a large family, indicating that if the program was built in one single volume there would be little open space; something undesirable due to the qualities of the site.

Los Canteros Mountain Refuge / dRN Architects

Nico Saieh — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The site was an existing void in the middle of a slope, bound on two sides by magnificent old containment walls built of stone. These walls defined a level area of approximately 12x10mts, 7.5mts below the level of the road. A few scattered trees seemed significant, as vegetation is hard to find at 2000 mts high in the middle of The Andes Mountains.

Glass bottling Plant Cristalchile / Guillermo Hevia

Igor Fracalossi — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:20:00 +0000

Generalities