House in Lo Curro

Horacio Schmidt Cortés, Horacio Schmidt Radic y Martín Schmidt Radic

Horacio Schmidt Cortés, Horacio Schmidt Radic y Martín Schmidt Radic

Architects: Horacio Schmidt Cortés, Horacio Schmidt Radic y Martín Schmidt Radic
Collaborators: Cristian Riquelme
Main Contractor: Basalto
Structural Engineering: Enzo Valladares
Landscaping: Juan Grimm
Predominant materials: Wood, stone, water
Site Area: 4.200 m2
GFA: 360 m2
Location: Lo Curro, Santiago
Design Date: 2007
Construction Completion Date: 2009

The house is located on the Lo Curro Hill, in the eastern sector of Santiago. A gentle and elongated slope forms part of the terrain covered by a eucalyptus forest, planted 30 years ago, with an irrigation channel cutting through it. The house faces north, and has a frontal view of the south side of the hill with its greenery. Furthermore, it has a side view of the eastern part of the city and of the Andes Mountains. The best of the central zone of Chile is concentrated in this place. In addition, it is minutes away from the motorways, connecting to all places.

“Order is a sign of existence and not its cause. If you impose life, you establish order, if you impose order, you establish death.”
The Wisdom of the Sands, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The commission came about through conversations with the client on the formal and programmatic rigidity of living in the city and the freedom offered by houses not in it –this freedom of movement they did not want to lose. They also wanted “a modern but welcoming house”, understood as an observation on contemporary architecture –boxes placed on the land that convert the dwellers into spectators of nature.

Organized around a central glass corridor, the proposal was to create an extended house on the land that would invite its dwellers to tour and enjoy it, an idea which was extended to articulate the house with the landscape design. Hence, the program is distributed liberally along the entire length, from an exterior painting studio passing through the more public areas to the bedrooms. The enclosures make use of the slope to create a hierarchical spatial arrangement according to type.

In order to create a welcoming house, the materials employed leaned towards the use of those of natural origin and textures, such as stone walls and wooden floors. The gently inclined roof covered with slate shingles has its structure on laminated Coihue beams. The purlins are left in plain view to add greater complexity and rhythm to the ceiling.

In order to blur the lines between the interior and the exterior, the large windows were fitted into the floor and the overhead beams, and only the sliding windows and the doors have frames. The stone walls of the garden terraces extend to the interior to reinforce spatial continuity. The large window in the hall can be opened completely, integrating the terrace and the pool with the interior of the house or vice versa.

Finally, the existing irrigation channel was incorporated into the house and the landscape design; with the idea of creating tiered water pools that follow the walkway, reflecting the surroundings, providing sound and humidity to the environment. This channel continues until it reaches the 18 meter long pool, which looks like yet another pond in the system.