Do House
“A contained inhabitance, between two curved walls, like a matrix... inhabitance facing the magnitude of the Pacific Ocean, an abyssal vastness at the coastal region of northern Chile”. This project was commissioned as a weekend house, a family condo in a site with many other constructions already there.
The architectonic order is founded in the intention to generate a matrix, like a protective womb towards the vastness of the sea. This would allow a contemplation act from a protected interior.
From the “I Ching” we take the mental image of the well.
The architectonic intention is like a subtraction, choosing to build a concrete circle, just like a well. This architectonic gesture is a circle, crossed by a line that is transformed into the house entrance. This line also works as a division between public and private space.
The complexity of the spatial solution lies on the intersection of two orders: the circular envelope v/s the orthogonal regularity. The circle dialogues with the surroundings in a synthetic way, it doesn’t try to create a new constructive typology, but to mimic the icon of a water tank.
The architectonic operation puts a rectangle inside of a circle, generating a mass and void relationship within the matrix. The voids are used to open windows, and the mass is materialized as curved walls that shape the circle. These walls support slabs that allow three levels of inhabitance.
The intersection between the rectangle and the curved walls, forms an expansion joint, used as a source for zenith lighting. Wood is used in embedded furniture to allow the public and private program. The laminated wood staircase, leads to the terrace on the roof, and works as a sculpture inside this main space.
