With views of massive Ranco Lake to the north and the Andes Mountains to the south, it’s no wonder that Hebra Arquitectos designed the Apfel House to capture picturesque panoramas. Located on a forested five-acre lot in Chile’s Los Rios region, the cabin is situated at the top of a small ridge overlooking the landscape—but the design also seeks to keep a relatively low profile.

“Before designing this house, we went to another development nearby, and it was these tall, multistory houses with white plaster—each one visible from miles away,” says architect Simón Peréz of Hebra Arquitectos. “We realized we didn't want to do something like this. We wanted a house that was part of the landscape.”

Hebra drew inspiration from the rural barns of southern Chile: modest, single-story structures clad in wood. “We didn’t want to make it literal; we wanted to create a version of it in contemporary terms,” Perez says. “So we decided the roof is quite important.”

Indeed, with a darkly stained facade of Patagonian oak rising over a retaining wall of natural stacked stone, the house blends into the landscape—tall enough to capture views, yet low-slung enough to not call attention to itself from a distance. With its angular metal roof and volumes suspended above the hillside, the design strikes the sweet spot between traditional and crisply contemporary.

The 3,200-square-foot vacation cabin serves as a second home for a Santiago property developer and his wife, an artist, who stay there for about 10 days at a time every other month, often hosting their four grown sons and their families.

The T-shaped layout allows the couple, when visiting by themselves, to live comfortably in the main wing, which includes the primary bedroom—and close off the rest, saving energy and heating costs. This wing is built parallel to the horizon, with Ranco Lake in front and the mountains in back. When the extended family visits, the four-bedroom residential wing can be opened up.

At the owners’ request, the layout encourages visitors to spend time together in the living room, where the two wings meet. Here, the vaulted Patagonian oak-clad ceiling reaches its apex in a striking work of geometry that joins three corners of the home’s roof.

“He wanted a space where the family could do different things at the same time,” Peréz says. “He wanted to be cooking in an open kitchen, while others are having a coffee together, and in the corner someone could be playing cards or sitting next to the fire.” There are deliberately no TVs in the bedrooms, but a small shared TV room is tucked just off the main living room.

The house is at its best when fully open to the elements. Beside the kitchen and dining area, a set of floor-to-ceiling glass sliders can disappear into the wall, allowing the long farmhouse dining table to extend into the outdoors. The open kitchen is augmented by an adjacent multipurpose space that can act as a carport, artist workshop, or even a covered area to barbecue.

In the living room, a long band of windows frames the view like a cinema widescreen, emphasizing the architecture’s horizontality (a strategy employed throughout the house). The operable and nonoperable panes are contained within the same metal sheet frame, which stretches across the facade.

The living room is anchored by a long, built-in sofa made from mañío wood that stretches across the entire window wall. Another distinctive feature is a large fireplace that reads like a sculpture: thinly sliced bricks form not only the fire box, but the bench below, and an angular, black metal hood stretches up to the ceiling.

The primary suite stretches out over the hillside, and floor-to-ceiling windows allow the couple to wake up with views. Though the house is comprised of two long, thin forms, Hebra broke up its mass by cutting an indentation near the axis of the T shape, which functionally separates the primary bedroom from the living area (making it quieter) while carving out space for a small, covered outdoor deck. A similar covered space is located at the end of the four-bedroom wing, to give the couple’s children a quiet place to admire the view, too.

No matter where you are in this residence, you’ll find a place not only to admire the view and enjoy company, but to feel the breeze. When all of the home’s doors and windows are flung open, being inside the Apfel House feels like being outside, amongst the birds and trees.

Related Reading:

A Cabin Springs Up Above a Dry Creek Bed in a Chilean Forest

A Santiago Couple Build Four Cabins—and a New Life—in Chile’s Lakes District

A Remote Chilean Cabin Appears to Float Above the Forest Floor

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Hebra Aquitectos / @hebra_arquitectos

Builder: Madre Tierra

Structural Engineer: Santolaya Ingenieros

Appears In

A T-Shaped Cabin Hugs a Forested Hillside in Chile