Clifftop monolith: poised on a cliff, this simple concrete house boldly confronts nature and the elements.Encompassing deserts and glaciers This is a list of glaciers. Due to somewhat sparse information, some glaciers, especially those in the tropics, may no longer exist as listed. This is especially true for glaciers in Africa and New Guinea. in an intoxicating in·tox·i·cate v. in·tox·i·cat·ed, in·tox·i·cat·ing, in·tox·i·cates v.tr. 1. To stupefy or excite by the action of a chemical substance such as alcohol. 2. , longitudinal sweep. Chile's mad geography has been a crucible crucible, vessel in which a substance is heated to a high temperature, as for fusing or calcining. The necessary properties of a crucible are that it maintain its mechanical strength and rigidity at high temperatures and that it not react in an undesirable way with for a particular kind of Modernism informed by abstraction, climate and nature. Many of the younger generation of South American architects are reconnecting with these currents. (Mathias Klotz Mathias Klotz Germain is a Chilean architect, born in Viña del Mar on 13 April 1965. Studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he graduated in 1991. Winner of the Borromini Prize of Architecture in 2001 for under 40 architects. is an obvious example) to produce strong, distinctive work that resonates with place. Such exploration is also apparent in the work of the young Chilean/Argentinian partnership of Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen who are based in the coastal city of Concepcion. Commissioned by a local cultural organisation, this dramatic cliffside house on the Coliumo Peninsula, was commended for its response to site and the strong, monolithic quality of its architecture. Some 550km south of Santiago the Coliumo Peninsula is a breathtaking but remote rural setting populated pop·u·late tr.v. pop·u·lat·ed, pop·u·lat·ing, pop·u·lates 1. To supply with inhabitants, as by colonization; people. 2. by farmers, fishermen and the occasional summer tourist. The difficulties of transporting materials and a largely unskilled local labour force limited the scope of the project, but the architects exploit these limitations to create an architecture of great simplicity and power. Poised vertiginously on the edge of the cliff, the house is an elemental concrete cube perforated per·fo·ra·ted adj. Pierced with one or more holes. by large square openings. Used both as a summer house and informal cultural centre, the building had to be at once domestic and monumental, apparently contradictory propositions which are skilfully Adv. 1. skilfully - with skill; "fragments of a nearly complete jug, skillfully restored at the institute of archaeology" skillfully skilfully (US), skillfully adv → habilement resolved. Service elements such as kitchen, bathroom, storage and staircases are relegated to the perimeter, contained within a I'm wide zone that acts as thermal buffer. This frees up the rest of the house, so the living area, for instance, is a grandly scaled triple-height volume. The house steps down the site, from bedrooms at the top, through kitchen and dining at intermediate level to the podium podium In architecture, a pedestal on a large scale. It may be any of various elements that form the base of a structure, such as the platform forming the floor and substructure of a Classical temple, a low wall supporting columns, or the structurally or decoratively of the living area that directly overlooks the cliff and sea below. The roof also acts as a terrace. Construction was extremely simple, with in-situ concrete cast by hand in untreated timber frames. Labour was provided by local farmers and fishermen who only had a small concrete mixer and four wheelbarrows at their disposal. In a spirit of inventive economy, the timber shuttering was recycled to make robust sliding panels that screen the service areas and windows when the house is not in use. Yet the engaging roughness of the construction only adds to the building's primitive allure. C. S. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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