Standing alone in its own plot near Rosario on the rolling Argentine plains, View House occupies a 2100 sqm allotment in the grounds of the Kentucky Club de Campo. The design by Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee and Diego Arraigada takes into account the potential and the constraints of the suburban setting. The focus is on the way the building relates to its specific surrounds, namely an outlying green plot on the edge of a compound. The two-storey building is a concentrated mass, striking for its minimal footprint. Visually too, it appears as a compact element in its setting. The traditional division into main, side and back façades has been done away with. The building’s volume is a curvilinear multi-facetted continuum that also modulates the relationship between interior and exterior. The result is a series of oblique fronts that in turn become the main elevation depending on where you are standing. The architecture has a formal, ‘tectonic’ complexity. A single solid volume has been cut up and gouged out, and then put back together again in a slightly different geometrical shape. The result is a series of dynamic exteriors. The architecture sits squarely on the ground yet seems uplifted. The forms appear compact yet at the same time project outwards. Inside, spatial layout is a spiralling continuum from the ground floor up to the terrace-roof. The varying sized windows are placed so as to frame particularly pleasant views of the landscape. They have also been disposed to take into account future developments around the plot. The sequence of openings choreographs the natural illumination of the interiors, using to advantage the gradual variations over the day and exploiting natural internal ventilation to avoid excessive mechanical air-conditioning loads. Windows vary in height, orientation and depth, presenting a wide variety of external views. Inside, carved-out, cut-away volumes are dynamically stacked, contributing to the sense of a sequence of interlocking spaces that encompass a full circle on their way to the terrace roof. On the exterior, the concrete shell has an unfinished appearance. It was built employing the same local techniques used for the area’s traditional grain silos, whose form the building also harks back to. This is in stark contrast to the interior which is smooth finished throughout. The delicate shades of the flooring on the first floor blend almost imperceptibly into the smooth white plastered wall, different only in the way they reflect the light. The black aluminium window frames contrast with the uncluttered white of the interiors. The more private environments have Lapacho wood floors in striking contrast to the walls and ceilings.
