The Peruvian desert stands at the confluence of the Andes range and the Pacific Ocean, which creates a unique climate:  highly humid, although without any rain, with constant temperatures that nearly match the comfort zone all year long.  A gentle, martian-like landscape makes us think as an incomplete work of nature.

Avoiding an objectual relationship with context, the house is conceived as a soil extrusion rather than an object in landscape.  Framing views is not a priority, but the creation of a microcosm that allows understanding its unique features by revealing its hidden qualities.

The house breaks up in different volumes that create platforms for life. Four platforms are created: one for cars and services, two sheltering the bedrooms and offering open planted surfaces above, and one dedicated to social activities, covered by a series of concrete vaults that anchor the space underneath to the ground.  By cantilevering the one of them, they seem an unfinished structure, so as the landscape appear to our eyes.

The climate admits the use of very basic technologies for building, so that local, non-specialized craftsmanship can be used.  A few masons were able to carve local stone and pour concrete in recycled wooden formwork, which reduced tremendously the cost for such a building.  Local puzzolanic cement, commonly used for foundations, was used to give a reddish color to concrete so to merge with the cliffs.  A special effort was made for the concrete vaults, and the masons were extremely proud to accomplish that endeavor.

Material Used:
Facade cladding: Local stone, exposed concrete, polished cement
Flooring: travertine stone, Roselló
Doors: wooden doors, handcrafted
Windows: Tempered glass without fixings, Miyasato
Roofing: Concrete roof, polished cement
Interior lighting: indirect buil-in lighting
Interior furniture: handcrafted built-in furniture, other provided by the client