Architect Iván Bravo’s team faced a unique challenge with a recent project: Create a structure that ’s at once public and private within a compact footprint. The building, located in a park on the edge of a nature reserve in Puerto Varas, Chile, needed to serve a residence for the park ranger, Aladino, and his wife, while also housing storage and an information center for visitors.

“It was important to consolidate the program in one building,” explains the design team. “This way, costs could be managed more efficiently, which means that the project can have better results, both in its habitability and in its expression as an architectural work.”

Bravo’s team was intimately familiar with the area, as they had designed the entire park, so they’d had nearly six years to think about what this private-public building would be before work began.

“We had the opportunity to visit the place and the surroundings several times and really get to know Aladino and his ways of living,” says Bravo and company. Aladino hails from the area, and he had previously been living in “an old hut made of wood framing with metal roofing sheets for walls and cladding” that Bravo described as “very precarious.”

Aladino’s new house is quite a departure from what his last, but Bravo’s team drew inspiration from the rural region’s older buildings (particularly the original larch shake barns, which are, according to the architect, the “the most recurrent piece of architecture” in the area) to create a building that incorporates traditional ways of living.

Shaped like an elongated A-frame, the structure is a study in contrasts—residential versus utilitarian, contemporary versus rural—expressed through its materials and construction.

The project is constructed from raw pine lumber, with a cement board roof painted in a color scheme that mimics the gray patina of regional barns made of wood from alerce trees (a type of cypress found throughout the park). It’s elevated about three feet off the ground, allowing a stream to flow beneath it.

Inside, the building is like a railroad apartment, with one long space and rooms separated by a series of central doorways. The entrance is sheltered by a chiflonera—a type of vestibule found in homes throughout the region that helps prevent interior warmth from leaking outside. The kitchen and living room occupy a large space around a woodstove, and a smaller sleeping area lies beyond that.

Aladino’s favorite space is the living area around the woodstove. “There’s a nice window that allows us to look out onto the volcano while we cook,” he says. “It makes us feel more a part of nature.”

While the interior layout is practical for maximizing space in a small footprint—the building measures 1,067 square feet—there’s also a more philosophical reason for it: “Like in baroque’s enfilades, the continuous doorways between each room erase the hierarchy that corridors imposed in modern architecture,” explains the design team. “There are no hidden parts of the project, every part is exposed as you roam through the building.”

Raw pine lumber is used throughout the project. “Because of a shortage of lumber in the area, the wood used was not fully dried—so we used additional construction techniques to ensure the stability of the elements,” adds the architect." layout="" credit="Photo by Marcos Zegers" photoUserId="6545361713771855872"/>

To that same end, the house wears its structural system on its sleeve, with every joint and beam on display. “As you walk through the project, you can see every layer of its construction, like an onion,” says the architect.

While Bravo’s team used traditional materials and incorporated elements that would be familiar to Aladino, the contemporary design was still an adjustment for him.

“My wife and I were wary of living inside a triangle,” admits Aladino. “It was hard to understand things like walls not being vertical, and we didn’t know what to do with so much height inside. However, little by little we got used to it, and now we value the spaciousness it has.”

“I don't really like changes,” he says, “but this one feels good.”

Related Reading:

Budget Breakdown: This Modular Cabin in Chile Cost Just $51 Per Square Foot

A Patagonian Prefab Cabin Is Built to Withstand Volatile Climates

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Iván Bravo Arquitectos / @comodoroo

Builder: Jorge Pavez

Appears In

An Understated A-Frame Does Double Duty in Southern Chile