Detached House by WHALE! in Tunken, Chile

Project: Detached House Architects: WHALE! Location: Tunken, Chile Area: 1,937 sq ft Photography: Hugo Bertolotto

Detached House by WHALE!

WHALE! designed the Detached House — a nearly two-thousand square foot modern residence located in Tunken, Chile. It sits on a plot surrounded by wild natural terrain, offering spectacular views from all sides.

Whale-dressed Sun-dried back under the windless summer sun Opaque like ancient ash Pale gray like gathered stone, The sand beneath its belly still retains the necessary moisture To dig up shells and seaweed And tiny coal bits, With which we could draw the darkest shade, Which would be the brightest and most humid black, Just like the sad floors from STALKER, We never touched a dolphin's skin, But we can feel the touch, Soft as hair underwater, Shiny and thick like the finest Wool, but: Can we guess how it feels to touch a whale that washes ashore under the January sun? A whale stuck between chagual and liters After a massive flood, Lying almost dead, looking at the mouth of Casablanca, Hardly distinguishing the sad light of tin roofs That grow like garbage dumps in the middle of meadows Forgetting behind the slaughterhouse in Kuntau, Where many souls were silenced

The house is located in Tunken, 122 km from Santiago, in a region with ravines and streams directing water into the valley. The plot offers panoramic views of the landscape where the closed mouth opens to the wetland of Tunken before connecting with the main beach and the Pacific Ocean.

The main plan is a simple beach house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and space for living room, dining area and kitchen; plus 2 terraces — one indoor, another outdoor. The layout is built from two volumes intersecting and overlapping. A comprehensive plan reflects the turn of the concave topography relative to the landscape.

The construction system is made from rigid frames built on pine (2 x 6 inches) with a spacing of 95 cm between them, where each frame is different from the other. However, the roof is continuous and uniform, enclosing in one movement different moments of the house.

–WHALE!