Creating Continuity with the Wild and Beautiful Nature

This is a house planned for a beautiful site on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Chile. The project involves eight Japanese architects invited to design one house each, together with eight houses designed by Chilean architects. A residential development of sixteen houses is formed, to which this house belongs.

The location of this house is at the tip of a small promontory into the Pacific. The configuration matches the shape of the promontory landscape, in a long narrow space with floors that rise and fall in accordance with the contours of the site, sheltered with a roof above.

The roof descends to the ground in places and gently divides the space beneath into segments, which determine the form. There are no walls to speak of- it is like a building of ground and roof only in the midst of abundant nature. Toward the tip of the cape facing the magnificent views is the public zone including the dining room, while private spaces such as bedroom are placed away from the sea in calmness.

In terms of structure, arches that connect diagonally-arranged landing points make it possible to create large spans while opening various directions toward the surrounding landscape. The space comes with a diversity of openness that can never be achieved with classic arch structures such as the vault roof.

With sinuous connection the roof gives a sense of volume seemingly smaller than the actual floor area, while creating a landscape-like continuity that aims for harmony with the wild and beautiful natural setting.

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Project name: House in Los Vilos
Location: Los Vilos, Chile
Architect: Ryue Nishizawa
Photographers: Philippe Godoy and Ryue Nishizawa

About RYUE NISHIZAWA
Ryue Nishizawa was born in Tokyo and studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. He joined Kazuyo Sejima & Associates in 1990. In 1995, with Kazuyo Sejima, he founded the Tokyo-based firm SANAA. Nishizawa established his independent practice, Office of Ryue Nishizawa, in 1997. Nishizawa and Sejima were jointly awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2010. Amongst other awards, Nishizawa was declared Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and received the Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan for the Teshima Art Museum. He is currently a professor at Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture (Y-GSA).