Articles by Andreas Luco

The commission consisted of a single-family house on the shores of the lake Lago General Carrera, near the town of Puerto Rio Tranquilo, located 4 hours south of Coyhaique along Carretera Austral, in the region of Aysen, in the Chilean Patagonia. From the beginning, given the conditions of the site, the design had to attempt to solve two main requirements. The first one, requested by the client, was to honour the characteristics of the Patagonian buildings, and the second, was to understand the adverse conditions of constructing in these regions: isolation, shortages of materials, inhospitable climate for working on the site and scarce workforce.

Reinterpreting the rural vernacular, this new home in the Cotswolds uses interlocking barn forms and a palette of local materials. Taking as a starting point the elongated forms of two 30 metre-long, timber chicken sheds which previously occupied the site, the house is a play of traditional barn volumes which have been pushed and pulled to suit the needs of the client. Inside, the key living spaces fan out around an internal patio, which acts as a focal point for the home. Clad in copper, the patio is a moment where both nature and light are introduced.

The design process started as an emotional path of discovery, where the house starts to exist, as your walk builds the walls and your breathing lets the space contract and expand. Like music, the emotion of the unknown note keeps you intrigued and the contrast of lows, highs and silences, invites the awareness of different human sensations to connect to our own spirit.

Architects : Cristián Izquierdo Lehmann
Location : Peumo, O’Higgins, Chile
Collaborators: Angela Koch, Jorge Cárdenas
Construction: Carlos Olivares
Structure: Osvaldo Peñaloza
Area : 163m2
Project Year : 2017
Photographs: Roland Halbe

Our primary design response for the Hawthorn House was to first recalibrate the entire project site into a large and singular terrace; one grand outdoor theatre for living which peels upwards at each title boundary to form a living garden backdrop that would appear at every viewpoint from the living areas of the home. Within this garden platform, the house is defined by a pair of heavily textured concrete shrouds, each with its own proportion and personality, linked together by a walkway and courtyard garden. The arched concrete shrouds evolved as a method of structurally supporting the house with its own skin; designed to be understood as protective cloak rather than as signifiers of support. These shrouds provide the framework for how the spaces within the home relate to each other and to the external environment. From the first floor the context appears denied, however these more private bathing and sleeping spaces are pulled away from the ends of the solid skin which allows each elevated pavilion to look out through full height glazing onto their own private courtyards full of plants, sky and tree canopy. At ground floor within the living, cooking and dining spaces the concrete shells provide clear connectivity with the entire landscape and a sense of unexpected lightness, while carefully concealing the neighbouring context.