Ventolera House

by Estudio Valdés

© Alejandra Demaria y Aryeh Kornfeld

© Alejandra Demaria y Aryeh Kornfeld

Architects: Leonardo Valdés, Alejandra Demaria y Federico Prieto
General Contractor: Alemparte y Cía.
Structural Engineering: Andalién, Antonio Medina
BauMaterials: Concrete, Grey Stone From Petorca, Cypress
Electrical Project: Sergio Alemparte
Soil Mechanics: RyV ingenieros asociados
Ighting Design: Sandra Bordoni and Carolina Palacios
Landscaping: Juan Grimm
Site Area: 3.000 m2
Location: Santo Domingo, V Región
Design Year: 2005
Project Year: 2006-2007
Photographs: Alejandra Demaria y Aryeh Kornfeld

The house is located on the coastal resort of Santo Domingo, in the V Region of Chile, in the upper plateau of the coastal rim. It has a balcony overlooking the dunes and the beach, with a wide view of the Pacific Ocean.

The coast of Santo Domingo is characterized as being extremely windy, with winds predominantly from the SW. Hence, a part of the house comprises a curtain erected on the rim and shielding the patio-garden-pool area, forming “the back”. The living-room/gallery is “bifocal”, adaptable to either condition.

The house was projected to be a structural module of reinforced concrete, specifically worked as such. Posts and beams were stood out in a “skeletal” fashion, which contained and depicted skins of stone, basalt, cypress woodworks and glass. This layout of concrete works allows dematerialization of the work through the partial detachment of the skins, achieving the shaping of the intervening spaces with total clarity.

The interior of the structural module is expressed through the harmony between the ribbed flagstone, the openings and the walls between outbuildings, where a total order of the work exists around the module.