Articles by Valentina Díaz

Strategically placed in the forest is a base made of stone native to the site. Emerging in a stereotomic manner, this solid block also comprises the foundation of the project.

Situated on a scenic promontory in Ciales, Puerto Rico, this project represents the transformation of a former funeral home into a dynamic, community-centered space. The Ciales Kindergarten will fill an immediate need for early childhood education in Ciales and surrounding municipalities in central Puerto Rico. Forty-eight children will benefit from this new facility. Aside from this, it will provide employment for teachers, directors and support staff. The client will relocate their Puerto Rico offices from the more remote municipality of Utuado to this new, easily accessible facility.

Located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Casa Seis Patios is a single-family residence designed for an art lover seeking a home intimately connected to the natural surroundings. The project is organized around six patios: strategic voids that articulate the space, allow for the entry of light and cross ventilation, and dissolve the boundaries between interior and exterior through the presence of vegetation in all environments. At the heart of the volume is the main patio, where the house opens completely to a central pool, making this space a gathering point.

The proposal is presented as a strategy for territorial and landscape activation in the eastern sector of Isla Teja, in Valdivia, in the stretch between the Architecture building of the Universidad Austral de Chile and the edge of the Río Calle-Calle. Through the design and construction of three pavilions, the project aims to consolidate this area as a space for walking, pausing, and gathering, incorporating new architectural references that engage with the river landscape and its high ecological value.

An unusually described program by Pablo, a rich enumeration of atmospheres and sensations in which to dwell, a terrain still to be chosen from a possible list. Thus begins the commission for this house. Pablo envisioned diverse exteriors that manifested the temporality of the seasons of the year, of their domestic landscapes; exteriors possible to be seen from the different spaces of the house. Living should be a spatial, sensory experience of discovery.

An unusually described program by Pablo, a rich enumeration of atmospheres and sensations in which to dwell, a terrain still to be chosen from a possible list. Thus begins the commission for this house. Pablo envisioned diverse exteriors that manifested the temporality of the seasons of the year, of their domestic landscapes; exteriors possible to be seen from the different spaces of the house. Living should be a spatial, sensory experience of discovery.

The House of a Writer is born from a central courtyard that articulates and gives meaning to all the spaces around it. The project embraces the traditional concept of the house with a courtyard, where a bookshelf —the protagonist in the double-height of the central space— becomes the axis that connects the various activities of the home centered around writing.

Toronjos is a vacation home designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings. From its inception, the project prioritized a minimal footprint and a fully sustainable design.

The program addresses the use of a family that lived in an apartment in Buenos Aires and decided to move to Córdoba during the pandemic. The land is located on the outskirts, in a gated community, in the southwest of the city, covering an area of 1500 m2, with a slight negative slope and a north-facing front. The house is designed with a clear functional distribution that manifests in the volumetric composition. One block for services, another for social areas, and another for private spaces, which are arranged in a “U” shape that surrounds a courtyard through which one enters.