[ Alejandro Beals, Christian Beals ] House on Lake Rupanco

Architects: Alejandro Beals, Christian Beals
Location: Lago Rupanco, Region de los Lagos, Chile
Design Year: 2004-2005
Construction Year: 2005-2006
Collaborator: Loreto Lyon
Structure: Patricio Stagno
Contractor: Nicolas Aranguiz, Mauricio Carrasco
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Constructed Area: 280 sqm

The house is located on the edge of lake Rupanco, in the south of Chile. The 160 x 30 meters site has a 36 meters slope and south-facing views of the lake.
The house programme was meant to include a lounge and an office where books, photos and fishing tackle could be kept. The dining room, kitchen and terrace were to have visual continuity, participating at once together and separately in the one space. On the upper floor, the bedrooms are arranged at the far ends of the volumes and connected by a wide corridor that converts this space into an extra area; this gallery extends outwards until it touches the high part of the terrain, making use of the natural slope and generating a secondary, independent entrance.

The outside of the house blends in with the surroundings by borrowing the shapes and textures of the buildings in the area. The structure is of pine, the facades of treated pine and the interior facings of untreated manio and ulmu wood. The exterior has been treated with a black sealer much used in rural buildings in the south of Chile to protect them from the persistent rain. In the course of time the facades will change color and the house will become established and gradually blend in with the other buildings in the area.
The house is organised in two parallel volumes in a woodland clearing, with each element orientated towards its optimum rapport with the landscape: in the upper part towards a wood of myrtle trees and autochthonous bushes; towards the front, the view between the tops of the trees and the lake; and towards the sides, the hermetic, impermeable planes, which from time to time are cut back to allow for the entrance of light.