082 _ _MAR/APR 2019
T
he two slabs of shuttered concrete rising from a podium
on a rocky stretch of Chile’s coastline some 250
kilometres north of Santiago are acutely enigmatic –
at least initially. Are they a memorial of some kind, perhaps to
mariners lost at sea? Or to the victims of an earthquake in this
seismically unstable land? In fact, they comprise a weekend
house designed by Alejandro Aravena, the first of 16 such
residences a developer has commissioned from eight Chilean
architects and eight from Japan. Like the Sea Ranch community
in northern California, where designers also took their cues from
a rugged coastal site, the so-called Ocho Quebradas development
is not for timid souls. As Aravena notes, “the Pacific is not pacific
here; the water is white from its collision with the rocks, and the
winds are often ferocious.”
Aravena is best-known for designing housing for low-income
families, who are given a sturdy shell that is half filled in and ready
to be built out as the occupants are able to afford improvements. He
calls his practice Elemental and that’s an apt description of his work,
which won him the Pritzker Prize in 2016. He accepted the challenge
of Ocho Quebradas (which means “eight ravines” in Spanish) because
the developer gave him a free hand (provided that Aravena stay within
the program: four bedrooms, living spaces, a wine cellar) and a budget
of US$500,000. “We decided to push the limit of what is thought
of as a house,” the architect explains. “A scarcity of means forces you
to respond with an abundance of meaning. With social housing you are
forced to eliminate the inessential; here we have chosen to do so.”
Concrete has supplanted wood as a favourite building material in
Chile. It’s inexpensive, durable, resistant to earthquakes and provides a
thermal mass. Aravena uses it here with rare expressiveness, confident that his house
will last for centuries and never look dated. There are no finishes to maintain: Glazing
is set into the board-formed concrete to frame vistas of the ocean from the living
areas and master bedroom in the podium and from the windows of three bedrooms
in the tower. The drama of the monoliths – the smaller one tilted against the upright
tower – acquires added significance within the podium, where glass sliders surround
an inner courtyard that contains a circular firepit partially sheltered by the tilted
block. There, protected from the area’s strong winds, people can gather around the
flames, as if around a campfire or at a cook-out on the beach. The tilted volume
essentially serves as a chimney.
“Rather than extend the house into the landscape, we compressed the core to
express something primitive, as though this were a ravine or a cave,” says Aravena.
There are roof terraces for fine days, but this is a house that can be used year-
round; the podium provides everything occupants might need, so the tower
containing the three extra bedrooms can be closed off as required. Elements that
at first might seem like follies turn out, in other words, to be highly pragmatic.
At the same time, the house challenges the development’s other architects to
create an innovative and harmonious community. Sea Ranch was launched in a
spirit of optimism with MLTW’s dark wood condo block and houses by Joseph
Esherick and William Turnbull Jr. These buildings, shaped by climate and
topography, had an iconic quality that drew on the rural vernacular. But Sea
Ranch has become more conventional and suburban in character over the past
four decades. Some of Japan’s best architects – including Ryue Nishizawa,
Kazuyo Sejima, Kengo Kuma and Sou Fujimoto – have been invited to
contribute to Ocho Quebradas, along with Cristián Undurraga, Izquierdo
Lehmann and other talented Chileans. One hopes that they will use their
creative freedom to complement the site as successfully as Elemental has
done. It’ll be a tough act to top. elementalchile.cl- Tower containing three
bedrooms and terrace - Tilted volume/chimney
- Living area/
master bedroom - Glass-enclosed firepit
- Spiral staircase
- Kitchen/dining area
- Wi n e c el l a r
- Bathroom
- Closet
SIDE ELEVATION PODIUM FLOOR PLAN
123455437896