[ Pezo von Ellrichshausen Arquitectos ] asa Parr

Photographer Cristobal Palma has sent us these photos of Casa Parr, a recently completed house by Pezo von Ellrichshausen Arquitectos in Chiguayante, Chile.

The single-storey house is built on the site of the owner’s childhood home.

The new building comprises twelve rooms arranged around nine courtyards, constructed around the existing trees on the site.

Each room has a high, pitched ceiling with a skylight at the apex; the roofs slope down to admit light into each of the courtyards.

Aluminium-zinc tiles were used to clad the roof and walls.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

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PARR HOUSE, CHIGUAYANTE, CHILE, 2008

This is both a huge and a small house. It doesn’t have extended rooms but instead a series of rooms that repeat themselves and some functions that are doubled according to the traditional Chilean country life.

The house is located in a small farm where, until not long ago, stood the owner’s old house where his childhood was spent. It’s a setting filled with memories. The witnesses of those moments are different kinds of fruit trees (from cherry tress to walnut trees) and native tress (from palm trees to araucarias).

Beyond this suburban site there isn’t much; at least nothing visually attractive. Hence, the program extends horizontally in order to, besides occupying the depth of these gardens, conquer a sort of interior introspection and invisibility of its external presence.

The irregular structure, somewhat labyrinthine, together with establishing a series of variations responding to the size and proximity among rooms, contains nine patios open to the sky. Something similar to nine openings that control the density of the plan.

The floor has no variation of levels. If the roominess of some spaces was made possible by elevating the ceilings to the equivalent of two floors, this decision couldn’t affect the patios by casting a shade over them.

We therefore established two inclinations: that of the roofs, that always descends towards the patios (allowing only the shade cast by the vertical walls); and that of the ceilings, whose vertex sliced by natural light openings is located depending on the furniture of each room.

The weight of a tile mantle (that in some aspect resembles that of the
old wooden house) hangs from these fourteen truncated prisms.

Having small metal pieces is the only way of eliminating the seams at the edge (as if it were one of Burri´s collages) and through them of noticing the industrial yet crafted nature embodied in its surfaces.

Architects: Mauricio Pezo, Sofia von Ellrichshausen
Project: Parr House
Location: Galvarino street nº 1983, Chiguayante, Chile
Project date: 2006
Construction date: 2007-2008
Plot area: 2.835 m2
Built area: 532 m2
Budget: Not disclosed
Client: Private
Models: Juan Mellado, Carolina Merino, Maria Paz Palma
Structure: Claudio Sepúlveda
Construction: Claudio Bravo
Sanitary project: Marcelo Valenzuela
Electrical project: Juan Aroca
Hitting project: Mauricio Comas
Constructive system: Reinforced concrete, wooden beams
Exterior finishing: Aluminium-zinc tiles HD 20/40, PVC window frames
Interior finishing: Painted plaster, wooden and stone floors
Model photography: Ana Crovetto
Architecture photography: Cristobal Palma