Along Chile’s northern coast, local architect Juan Pablo Ureta designed an L-shaped holiday home that wraps around a central courtyard which is, without doubt, the social core of the dwelling.
The courtyard has all the essentials of a vacation getaway – a swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, an oval fire pit and a lounge area, and views of the local beach. The timber and pine home stretches along three sides, with guest suites and open-living spaces assigned to different volumes. A home gym completes the property’s amenities.
Glass openings line the courtyard-facing façades, which slide open to join the indoors with the outdoors. Instead of interior hallways, residents cross from one volume to another via a series of walkways, encouraging the experience of ‘inhabiting the outside.’ “Both elements touch tangentially, but it is only possible to transit from one to the other through the terraces,” says Ureta.
And while currently acting as a space for summer gatherings with friends and family, the vacation house is envisioned as a dwelling to retire in full time in the future.
Photography © Nico Saieh