Montes House

Located in a vineyard in the southern region of Ñuble, in Chile, this was the first house designed by 57STUDIO. As part of a rural complex from colonial times, made of houses and productive warehouses that were restored at the end of the 20th century, the place has a significant heritage value.

The constructions, which stand out for their thick white walls and tile roofs, were also unified by an extensive park with patios and paths created by landscape architect Juan Grimm. Slightly further from this complex, in the middle of a forest and two years earlier, El Roble Chapel was built. Facing this new commission meant the decision to approach it as an exercise in learning from the vernacular architecture born from the volumetric, spatial and constructive study of the architecture of the place. This with the idea that the new house would emerge as another construction of the complex and in contrast with the architecture of the Chapel.

As in the existing productive constructions, which stand out for the use of the topography in the production of wine through interior levels and asymmetrical roofs, the program of the new house is developed within a rectangular volume, with three levels inside. The highest level houses the bedrooms and an interior corridor that leads to the lower level, where the dining room and living room are located. This difference creates a greater height in those spaces and an extension of the roof that follows the slope of the terrain. Through a window gallery that articulates with the structure of the roof, a continuous view of the landscape is projected. On an intermediate level and towards one of the sides of the house, the access level with the kitchen and service area is located.

As in the existing architecture, the house adapts to the slope of the terrain with stone baseboards and paving. The demolition clay tile roofs and thick masonry walls, with bricks set across the width of the house, enabled an efficient thermic solution and also to leave space under the windows to fit the heating radiators. For the wooden structure, demolition materials from an old pier were used. Through rigorous measurements and calculations, noble woods such as oak and American oregon pine were able to be reused for all the beams and pillars. While in all wood trims of smaller size, native raulí wood was used for its high stability, workability and durability. Window frames, molded doors, casings, crown moldings, baseboards and furniture were custom-made following a meticulous design of handcrafted carpentry whose fine precision contrasts with the formal rusticity typical of this type of architecture.