House among trees / Barbara Berson

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Description submitted by the project team. Upon arriving at the site, it was surprising to find ourselves in the presence of three majestic trees located in the central place. At that moment I imagined that the house should shelter those monumental conifers. These would be in charge of structuring the architecture and giving it the “time” factor, through the wrinkles of its bark, its transformations through the seasons, its movement with the wind.

The house respects the land where it sits through piles that barely pierce it and allows the enormous existing roots to run underneath.

The space is conceived as a shadow platform, where an emptying process then begins and light appears inside through three patios.

From the outside we observe a series of veils of rusty pieces that surround the body of the architecture. The spaces appear suggested through opacities and transparencies. They provide privacy and allow you to develop a full family life.

The space was conceived as a grid of modulated and continuous columns. This system arises from the exploration for connectivity between domestic spaces and the natural environment. Interior and exterior merge through three patios that are responsible for shaping and giving privacy to the different environments.

The first patio is discovered through the ceremony of access to the intimate space. A natural bellows encourages us to leave the noise of the city behind and prepares us to enter the private world in search of self-construction.

The other two patios mediate between the public and private parts, housing the existing trees inside. The light, the vegetation, the environment penetrate through the exterior diaphragm to the interior of the domestic. The rain, the sun, the birds, the falling leaves participate in the daily life of living.

The partitions that separate the rooms are light, which allows the system to dismantle and assemble them with great ease, allowing great adaptability of use and flexibility in the spaces to be redefined over time.

The pergola acts as a fold between the house and the garden, generating a cool place for family gatherings on summer days.

Above the living space there is a double-height glazed box, where the painting studio is housed. From this site you can see the vertical extension of the trees with their culmination in the leafiness of the crown.

A terrace is developed over the entire house for the enjoyment of its inhabitants in dialogue with the trees. This will have an active use within the operation of the home. It will be responsible for recovering rainwater for irrigation and through a layer of substrate and vegetation it will act as thermal insulation to achieve greater comfort.

In this place we discover an unexpected, intimate terrace, which recovers the land where it rests. We negotiate paths bordered by pampas grasslands to reach clearings of native vegetation that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. From here you can see sunsets and full moon nights.