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To Look Outward, You Must Look Inward
To Look Outward, You Must Look Inward
A vast landscape, a line on the horizon, constant and untouched.
The undulating topography is covered by a subtle vegetation, which grows sparser as it nears the sea. A steady wind crosses the site, carrying different moods across the years.
Among plots of irregular geometries, a set of houses is arranged with diversity. Among them, one with a square plan. In it, a way of being in the world orbits around water — here inverted from the sea, and thus contained. Sleeping, eating, dreaming, and loving unfold continuously around the central courtyard and communicate horizontally with the exterior through openings at the corners.
A prefabricated timber structure (glulam) allows for clean, precise, and fast construction, reducing the waiting time for future inhabitants. Alongside the structure, a panelized system of glass, enclosures, and cabinetry establishes a reconfigurable programmatic relationship, adaptable to each family's conditions.
Like an echo of the central void, a lightweight concrete enclosure — modular and cast in place over a bed of flowers and vegetation found on the site — grants the inhabitants privacy. Each panel a drawing, each house the possibility of another arrangement, another landscape within the site's new configuration.
In this unstable existence I move without moving.
Client: Ocho al Cubo - Chile.
Location: José Ignacio - Uruguai.
Design years: from 2025
Author: Gustavo Utrabo
Team: Fernanda Britto, Gabriel Dias, Julia Frenk, Pedro Garcia.
Consultant: Ita Engenharia
Building Area: 200m²