light & trees

BAK Architects JD House is located on a 20m x 30m plot of land in the coastal Mar Azul forest, Argentina. The residence designed primarily in concrete, wood and glass is blended into the topography and vegetation on the site. The client specified a house that could accomodate visitors within the building as well as a generous outdoor expansions. The land on which the house is situated follows a gentle slope that provided a welcome challenge for the design of the house. The house sits very high above the ground in order to adjust to the level changes on the site thus providing a heightened condition of privacy. The Architects conceived the house as two pure prisms, located in a clearing among trees of various heights, as intersecting perpendicular forms that joined at half levels. Volumes that alternate between high and low ceilings, depressed floors to provide a dynamic space of a variety of functions and different level of transparency through the house is equally as important as the opacity of the grey concrete walls. The views through the house direct the eyes onto the landscape beyond the house whereas the concrete walls direct light and provide organised views within the house.