Chile. Alejandro Soffia designs a Shotgun house with SIP panels

The building is part of a series of nine houses, an experiment with prefabrication to produce different spatial and volumetric results.

The Shotgun house in Cachagua is the ninth of a series of residential buildings resulting from Alejandro Soffia’s experimentation. The building system features structural insulated panels – also called SIP. In this particular case the architect applies this system to the typology of the Shotgun house, a traditional US residence mainly consisting of a linear arrangement of rooms with a door at each end of the house.

Img.1 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.2 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.3 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.4 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.5 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.6 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.7 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.8 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.9 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.10 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.11 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.12 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.13 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.14 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.15 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.16 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.17 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.18 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.19 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.20 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.21 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, Chile, 2017
Img.22 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, axonometric scheme
Img.23 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, illustration
Img.24 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, Cachagua, illustration
Img.25 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, prospective section with collage
Img.26 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, module scheme
Img.27 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, bay moltiplication scheme
Img.28 Steven Holl's study of the Shotgun house typology, 1982
Img.29 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, illustration
Img.30 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, illustration
Img.31 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, illustration
Img.32 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, illustration
Img.33 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, plans
Img.34 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, facades
Img.35 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, sections
Img.36 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, SIP panel arrangement
Img.37 Alejandro Soffia, Shotgun house, section and SIP panel arrangement

The SIP panels building system combines structure and thermal insulation and serves as a module defining the dimensions of the construction. The distribution of the panels is indeed optimised to compose a series of 33 bays on the same axis, measuring 40 meters in total. The building is divided in two residential units where the double-height living areas are the cores around which the interiors are organised. In each unit, a suspended walkway in the living areas connects the rooms at the first floor emphasising the verticality of the pitched roof with whole-wood coating.

  • Shotgun house
  • Los Maitenes, Cachagua, Chile
  • residential
  • Francesco Borghi
  • José Manuel Morales
  • Mauricio Jara
  • 2017