Casa el Maqui

Two pavilions cladded with wood, surrounded by a water surface, projecting telescopically towards the beautiful landscape of this natural reserve of The Coastal Mountain Range of Chile in the summer house by GITC arquitectura.

Design and ceramics renew a shopping center

FMG Fabbrica Marmi and architect Paolo Gianfrancesco, of THG Arkitektar Studio, have designed the restyling of the third floor of Reykjavik's largest shopping center. Ceramic, the central element of the project, covers floors, walls and furniture with versatile solutions and distinctive character.

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The building is located in the eastern hillside of El Maqui Brook, a rural place of The Coastal Mountain Range of Chile. This geographical zone is part of a protected natural reserve with high and important ecological value because of its singular and diverse coexisting ecosystems.

The client ask GITC arquitectura for a seasonal house for a family of six and a near garden around the house whose principal element was water. In order not to alter the rich forests and ecosystems the architects sought an already damaged hillside without vegetation to found the building. The new landscaping project should recover the area. The eastern hillside position assure prolonged sunlight and optimal exposure to the prevailing ascendant air current.

The program distribution, the volume and the way it stands over the ground will response to two opposite situations: a preexisting one (the geography and weather) and a proposed one (the near garden and the water). A dormitory pavilion rises with presence and exposure, oriented to the views, the weather virtues. The common areas volume adopts an intimate and hermetic position focused on the family activities and on its direct relationship with the garden and water.

The water surfaces that round the house were dimensioned by a swimming pool request and by a proposed bio filter pond with studied levels and extensions. This water surfaces and its specific aquatic plants made possible a flooded garden, excavated on the hillside, directly in contact with the internal common area activities. This flooded garden also provides an important fresh air supply necessary to control and manage the summer high temperatures.

The material expression responds also to the two opposite situations. The reinforced concrete of the retaining and bearings walls were built by a overlap table formwork system, made on site. It gets a tectonic and solid expression which, at the same time relates friendly with the habitant through its textures, imperfections and shadows lines. The second level will response to an efficient construction system. The steel frame structure allowed to satisfy formals requirements and get light and simples ventilated wooden solutions for the building enclosures to control the heat.

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