This rustic vacation home was designed by Iragüen Viñuela Arquitectos, nestled in the Malalcahuello, a national reserve in the Andes Mountains, in the Araucania Region of Chile. The scope of this project was to create a family retreat to accommodate up to twelve people, who would share two common spaces: a central open space for the whole family and a more informal room for the youngest.
In addition, there would be two shared bathrooms, storage, utility rooms, and a primary suite that would allow controlled access to some unique places on the site. Ultimately, the commission was to reuse a steel and wood platform that had been previously executed in a failed construction attempt.
The platform that was recycled defined the floor plan and position of the house at the tip of the peninsula within a clearing in the forest, at the same time it enabled the architects to solve part of the program, contemplating two double bedrooms at the ends, an open common space in the center (living-dining room-kitchen), the two bathrooms, chimney, entrance hall, and covered terrace with a barbeque on site.
On the ground floor, the program was organized in such a way that the views were taken advantage of, contemplating two perpendicular axes that cross the house and enable views at their ends towards the four cardinal points. In this way, a corridor on the east-west axis ends in windows facing the river, while the central space opens to the north (sun) and south (river and hill). In this way, the sun enters the house at different times of the day, allowing an exceptional domain of the environment and its views.
What We Love: This rustic retreat offers a relaxed use of living spaces and the enjoyment of the impressive nature of the Andes Mountains. The exterior wood cladding complements the surrounding forest wonderfully while presenting a warm and inviting feel to both owners and guests. Lastly, the asymmetry of the windows on the exterior is more visually interesting than if they were centered under the ridge.
Tell Us: What do you think of the overall design of this home? Are there any details you would change if this were your getaway home in the Andes Mountains? Let us know in the Comments!
Note: Check out another spectacular home tour that we have featured here on One Kindesign in Chile: Modern concrete house in the Chilean mountains.
The commission was resolved through an archetypal silhouette that on the one hand stands out from the nature in which it is immersed, but at the same time does not want to attract attention since it refers to the architecture that has always been present in the place.
A skin of sun-worn wooden planks covers the main facades, borrowing the way the area’s sheds are lined and the gray hue of the tree bark. The interior of the house completely clad in black wood allows a great contrast with the white winter and green summer landscape and offers an atmosphere of introspection and tranquility in keeping with the vocation of the refuge.
A series of platforms were developed that bypass the existing trees to get closer to different corners of the landscape. These platforms allow access to the house and its surroundings regardless of the weather conditions and include a walkway that connects the house with the garage, a large deck that ends in a wooden pool overlooking the river, and a second deck that enters the forest under huge trees and leads to the river and a hot tub.
PHOTOGRAPHER Marcos Zegers
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