Chilean labyrinth: a complex, labyrinthine plan is crowned and illuminated by a prismatic roofscape.

This family house in Chiguayante, a small town south of Santiago, takes the traditional Hispanic notion of the patio and fragments it throughout the dwelling. Instead of one large courtyard, there are nine small ones, open to the sky, providing private oases of greenery and light to individual rooms. The house is set on a small farm, and the new dwelling replaces the original homestead. The surroundings are thickly wooded, with fruit trees, palms, and araucarias. One particularly large palm dramatically penetrates the patio next to the entrance hall, as nature becomes part of the house.

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Rooms are arranged in a deep plan, with some functions doubling up, a feature apparently common in traditional Chilean rural life. Spaces are essentially cellular, but there is a degree of fluid interconnection, with the glazed walls of the patios choreographing unexpectedly through views. This percolated, labyrinthine arrangement generates an astonishingly complex roofscape of 14 tile-clad, truncated prisms, each topped by a skylight. External walls are wrapped in a carapace of metal shingles, which gives the house a slightly unfortunate plasticity and lifelessness that belies its rich internal life. C.S.

Architect

Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects, Concepcion

HOUSE, CHIGUAYANTE, CHILE

ARCHITECT

PEZO VON

ELLRICHSHAUSEN

ARCHITECTS