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Architects: Pezo von Ellrichshausen
- Area: 2400 m²
- Year: 2022
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Text description provided by the architects. This is a large and small building located at the foot of the Andes mountain range. In fact, it is a collection of twelve different buildings separated by visible seismic joints. To say that this collection of concrete blocks is a house would be too simple.
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To say that it is a museum would be too humble. Aside from its secular character, this group of buildings is more of a cloister. It has a severe profile, (once again) a square footprint divided by an asymmetrical cross, with rooms on the perimeter and in its core.
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These rooms unfold horizontally around four different courtyards: one, elongated, that follows the natural terrain along with the sunrise and sunset; another, also elongated, oriented to the north and completely flat, with a stream of water that connects a solitary hazelnut and two triangular ends; another, directionless, with a circular flower garden; and a last one that triples its size, with a pond and several old trees.
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The name of this intricate structure is given by the size of this largest courtyard, which is equivalent to that of a bullring (called 'medialuna' in the Chilean rural tradition). But names are the least of our concerns.
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The spatial quality of each room, both interior and exterior, is marked by unique openings in multiple directions. A tenuous functional division line is thus established: there is almost no contrast between living and working rooms (for painting, writing, or gardening).
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In some corners there are nuances of intimacy; in others, weight, emptiness, and opacity become, in a way, monumental. The unfolded format of the system makes evident the flat horizontal extension of the roof, although with an almost imperceptible transition from one to two floors.
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The fortified presence of the building - despite the exaggerated lack of thickness of its handmade concrete walls - is divided by horizontal strata of regular cornices. In opposition to these rough surfaces, the walls of the courtyard are crowned by thick eaves, some straight and others rounded.
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