Project: Ghat House
Architects: Max Núñez Arquitectos
Associate Architect: Stefano Rolla
Structural Engineer: Mauricio Ahumada
Building Contractor: Francisco Alvarez
Landscape Design: Alejandra Marambio
Technical Inspection: Alfonso Bravo
Lighting Design: Estudio Par
Location: Cachagua, V Region, Chile
Built Surface: 340 m²
Photographs: Roland Halbe
Text by Max Núñez Arquitectos
The Ghat house is located on a terrain that has a 25º inclination, facing the Pacific Ocean. Its design, structure, internal organization, and the lifestyle proposed within it were determined by the pre-existing conditions of the topography.
The inclined surface of the roof is parallel to the natural slope of the site and it’s occupied by a large stair with unusual proportions for a domestic program. Below this oblique plane a diagonal interior space contains the different programs of the house. The monotony of the free plan is redefined by the slope, creating an interior topography of varying levels with different sizes and heights.
The roof is supported by 15 concrete columns with different sizes and shapes. Their geometry was determined by their structural needs and its heterogeneous shapes manage to individualize each column as a singular element, avoiding the reading of a rigid structural grid ordering the plan. Each column generates a particular point in space and the framing of the landscape between them is always diverse.
Four lighter volumes cladded in wood interfere with the surface of the roof and the space below it. Three of these volumes contain the private rooms, and the fourth, smaller in dimensions, contains a direct access to the roof from the inside. These volumes are located under, beside, and above the roof, establishing ambiguous relations between the private and public areas of the Ghat house.
