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La Base also designed the bathroom’s modular hangers.

A wood-burning stove heats the 840-square-foot home during winter months.

Movable slatted-wood panels allow Teresa and Nicolás to control the flow of light as well as the level of privacy from the nearby road. The space between the screen and home acts as a small deck.

The whole project comprised only three months of design, two months of production (some 90 percent of which was completed at a Buenos Aires factory), one day of assembly, and five days of adjustments. The structure consists of just four 9-foot-8-inch-by-19-foot-7-inch modules supported by a foundation plate. “If we want to move it, we can,” says Teresa. “We could get a crane and disassemble it and then reassemble it on the coast.”

Architects Nicolás Tovo and Teresa Sarmiento designed their glass-encased vacation home for a site in Patagonia, a two-hour flight from their studio in Buenos Aires. Nicolás calls it “a magical enclave” overlooking Nahuel Huapi Lake. “It’s a panoramic viewpoint where we can watch what happens,” adds Teresa.

Mesdag and family live minimally but happily here at the end of a dirt road.

The bathroom off of the primary bedroom is flooded with light.

Natural materials and durable finishes accommodate active play in the kids' playroom, without compromising the home's modern aesthetic.

The wooden terrace spans the length of the house, connecting the building directly to the landscape.

The primary bathroom repeats the tiles used in the kitchen, another example of the couple’s restrained choice of materials.

A skylit staircase, wrapped in a more refined version of the exterior slats, rises through the center of the 1,600-square-foot house.

Floor plan of House on Lake Havelock by SvN Architects, renovated by Kelly Doran

A perpendicular wing houses the garage. The house has no air conditioning, relying on lake breezes and cross-ventilation for cooling. Each bedroom has a screened door that opens to the deck and an adjustable transom above the hallway door to encourage the circulation of air.

The cottage stretches for more than 110 feet, with a Muskoka room, or screened-in porch, at the northwestern end.