Siete Coigües House

Project Details

Project Description

More than 90% of people in Valdivia live within urban boundaries, whereas approximately 85% of its land belongs to rural zones. Given such a paradox, the architectural commission of a residence in a rainforest located ten kilometres away from the city center, challenges the insight-based design method from such a condition. To what extent can perceptions of nature become spaces for city dwellers? The query points to a relationship between space requirements from an urban family, and the prospect of inhabiting a natural environment. Designing a house in the woods beyond city borders may also address the search for shelter. There is a series of intentions related to the idea of a safe refuge, which purposefully shape the recording of onsite perceptions. However, late amendments on the project brief, such as the requirement of shared zones for both reading and working, plus other comfort features for guaranteeing user satisfaction, such as natural lighting, determine a number of adjustments in the architectural program.
The plot is a trapezoid of 0,8 hectares, distributed over a continuous slope of thirty-five percent. First insights are a vast downward perspective from the top of the site, southern to a small valley below, and a panoramic view of the rainforest hills that surround the northern front. This visual domain served as the purpose for choosing to keep the house as high within the lot as possible. Additionally, concerning site perceptions, a physical proximity to native evergreen species of up to forty meters high, such as Coigüe or Laurel, gives the experience of weakness throughout the body, which emerges from looking at treetops whilst stepping on the leaning soil that sustains them. This sense does not give a fear of falling, but rather an impression of emptiness that charms the observer, similar to the feeling of vertigo. Noticing such a form of vertigo as an aspect of the relationship between tree heights and steep ground drives the design statement to propose an extension of the above insight towards the domestic space, in terms of both visual and corporeal range, by incorporating the vertical dimension of vegetation and soil. Moreover, the lack of flat ground makes it possible to visualize the architectural program as organized through a number of overlapped levels; each with a narrow, square floor plan. The latter operation seems to update the idea of working with tree heights to establish practical affinity with nature, whilst constraining the horizontal extension of buildings. Connecting site entrance with the above volume occurs through the addition of external steps and a pedestrian bridge, directing people towards a sheltered void in the south-eastern corner on the first floor, where the main door is located. As mentioned, the development of vertigo strives to sustain an upright perception while inside, but also achieve a sense of orientation associated with the pursuit of shelter and safety. From the receiving hall on the first floor, constant external references of aspects such as scenery and daylight, complement the domestic domain through a series of windows, besides both visual and physical links to all internal levels. Likewise, in a shared reading zone next to this receiving space, a mezzanine provides descending views of the ground floor, surrounding landscape, and outside northern light through a double-height fenestration. On the top floor, the staircase arrives to a shared working zone, having an ocular domain to the southern woods. Areas such as the kitchen, dining, and living room occupy an open plan on the ground floor, from which it is also possible to see the internal heights. Albeit private spaces fit into the remaining parts of the structure, some remain subject to extension in terms of usable floor area; such as the two separate bedrooms on the top floor, which grow in the form of a cantilever, beyond volume boundaries towards southern and western directions.