A Chile lakeside home is a tour de power in timber

This lakeside home, cascading down a steep slope above the shores of Lake Panguipulli in Los Ríos in Chile, is Casa Pyr, a brand new challenge from the Santiago-based Cazú Zegers Arquitectura. The home was commissioned by an artist and her husband, who returned to Chile after residing overseas, selecting a difficult web site in an space the place that they had holidayed prior to now to construct their new home. On paper, the plot was excellent, however as architect Cazú Zegers explains, the method was lengthy and deeply concerned, not least as a result of the pandemic interrupted it.

Cazú Zegers’ new lakeside home: welcome to Casa Pyr

‘The positioning was wonderful, however it was dangerous for structure,’ she says, explaining how the south-facing facet overlooking the lake was countered by a north aspect shielded by a tall cliff face. Getting mild into the center of the construction was a key goal, as was coping with the native local weather, particularly the wind. Early plans to utilize cross-laminated timber (CLT), impressed partly by the British architect Andrew Waugh, a long-standing advocate in constructing with structural timber – partly to mitigate the difficult entry circumstances – had been scuppered by the purchasers’ request for loads of openings, unachievable with the prefabricated structural panels.

As a substitute, the home grew to become a tour de power of up to date timber building. Formed by the stories and research commissioned into the facet, surroundings and topography, Casa Pyr takes the type of two overlaid crosses, set at angles to at least one one other and jutting out from the hillside. ‘We investigated the wind, the solar, the views,’ says Zegers, and the ensuing necessities formed the orientation of the home, its home windows, terraces and inner configuration.

Zegers and her crew drew on geological and quasi-mythical inspiration, utilizing the multifaceted type of the mineral pyrite as a springboard for the creation of its kinds. The home’s core is the steps that join all three ranges. ‘The staircase was impressed by the geometry of fireside and flames,’ she explains, ‘with angles that rotate as they join to every ground.’

Combining the positioning investigations with this gave the home its type: ‘I began utilizing the geometric composition of the stones,’ says Zegers, including that pyrite will get its title from the Greek for ‘fireplace stone’, an apt description for the emotional core on the coronary heart of the home, in addition to its relationship to the rocky web site. Casa Pyr discovered its title, and the mix of information and want that formed the home was united. ‘All the things got here collectively simply as a result of I used the central staircase as a connector,’ says Zegers. ‘Then I might play with the opposite items.’

‘Play’ is just too informal an outline for the intricate planning and stylish kinds which have resulted in Casa Pyr’s a number of ranges and angles, described as a collection of steps that lead down from the cliff to the lake. The geological influences are additional emphasised by the grey-washed cypress cladding. Says Zegers, ‘I wished the home to return out of the panorama, not be carved into it.’ Inside, the partitions, ceiling and staircase are additionally clad in pine, calmly whitewashed to boost the pure mild. ‘I like to work with single supplies, so you may really feel the scale of the area. We even have ‘invisible’ doorways that learn as in the event that they’re a part of the wall.’

The primary entrance is on the higher degree, an open-plan area with the kitchen at one finish and a residing space on the different. A big deck is accessed through a run of opening home windows alongside the south façade, whereas a seating space juts out from the hillside. The cross-shaped ground beneath homes the bedrooms, with three similar bunk rooms tucked into the hillside, and two principal bedrooms occupying the arm and high of the cross. All these areas are bisected by the advanced staircase, which weaves out and in of a ground plan that gives up a number of views of the encompassing treetops, lake and past.

Cazú Zegers arrange her studio in 1991 and has gained a number of awards for initiatives that concentrate on new takes on vernacular building. Buildings such because the dramatic Resort Tierra Patagonia, with its snaking wood-clad type, have highlighted the advantages of working carefully with native supplies and processes. Casa Pyr is a continuation of this exploratory strategy, as had been earlier initiatives corresponding to Casa Esmeralda and Casa Llu, additionally impressed by minerals and stones. ‘My earlier work all the time leads on to new work,’ the architect says, mentioning how an evolutionary thread of design concepts and materials methods flows by way of the studio’s initiatives.

The choice to foreground the usage of wooden is one in every of these continuously evolving components. ‘Timber is an apparent materials to work with,’ Zegers says, not simply due to its clear environmental advantages, however as a result of in earthquake-prone areas like Chile, it presents a versatile, responsive construction that may transfer with any tremors. ‘We predict that timber is the Twenty first-century materials,’ she provides, citing its light-weight and the velocity of building, but in addition admitting that, in her early work, concrete held a sure fascination, not least due to the work of architects like Tadao Ando. However ‘I got here again to timber,’ Zegers concludes, noting that, in lots of respects, timber building continues to be within the sixteenth century when it comes to strategies and approaches.