Within the “ochoalcubo” residential complex Sebastián Irarrázaval’s plans are for a holiday home, very much a weekend house. The layout is based around the feature of a central patio. Enclosed by glass walls, this gives visibility to the various inside areas and connects them into one united whole. Two bedrooms actually abut on this courtyard; a corridor runs round the other three sides and thus divides off the master bedroom, the living and entertaining areas and the kitchen from this centre point of the building. The courtyard is like a Roman impluvium, partly covered by a pergola structure of large concrete beams supported by a mixture of slanting V-shaped pillars in exposed concrete varied with steel uprights. This emphasis on the patio gives flexibility to the inner rooms, as they naturally spill out onto the centre area with its changing light and deep daytime shadow, as well as providing protection and privacy. The villa thus follows a dual arrangement, blending outside and in. The front overlooks the golf course and is all living space. Its main feature, a full-height window, is framed and protected by the jutting overhang of the flat roof, which acts as a sun-shield, pergola and decorative cornice. The rendered outer walls project to the sides, squaring off the façade geometrically. From the front wall of the living area the building looks out on lawns and an open-air pool. The other façades are blind or contain the odd small window. The villa extends horizontally on one floor and fits naturally into the terrain, exploiting the shelving lie of the land. On the kitchen side a plain long outside staircase gives access to the section that serves as a covered terrace and fully glazed belvedere. Inside, exposed concrete plays a characteristic part; in a spartan kind of elegance, the wall structure directly serving the function of furnishing: a niche in the bedroom side-wall forms a long open shelf, like a modern twist to an old European tradition, while the bathroom area uses the exposed wall surface for its fittings. Glass walls skirting the patio and bisecting open plan areas provide a subtly distorted, elegantly opaque see-through effect, in a mingled play of light and shadow.

Francesco Pagliari