Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Quebrada Honda House
Pablo Casals-Aguirre

Quebrada Honda House

A single-family home, located on the southern hillside of Domeyko Bay in front of the Llanquihue´s lake views. These two characteristics are the main issues that defined the order and shape of the house. Given the need to have the most public venues with a frontal view of the lake, the main spaces are arranged on the front. Likewise, the staggered strategy responds to the topography of the hillside with a volume that descends diagonally through the slope, maximizing the capture of northern sun to counteract the few hours of sun from southern facades. The volume goes down with the ground in four levels, from the most private to the most public areas.

photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre
photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre

Only half levels separate the first three platforms, master bedroom in the first, children's bedrooms and study room in the second and kitchen, laundry room, dining and living room on the third as the most public level, which opens completely to the lake. On the fourth level there’s the storage, parking and main access. Spatially, the three interior levels are conceive as a sequence of spaces connected by a side stairway that intermittently descends, resulting in a continuous space on the north façade. The north, west and east façades consider greater openings through the exposed timber structure. In contrast, the south façade was designed with punctual and directed openings. The entire volume is inscribed under an inclined roof according to the slope, which protects the house from rain and wind with perimeter eaves.

photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre
photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre

The constructive proposal consists in a mixed prefabricated system based on SIP panels as a thermal envelope of 160mm considering slabs, walls and roof. Exposed timber structures were used for pillars, diagonals, beams and window frames. Foundations and containments are made up of a reinforced concrete wall at the base. The upper platforms are supported by an isolated foundation that support a mixt structure of steel and timber beams that holds the SIP slab on each platform. In the interiors, timber elements were combined with white finishing walls and ceilings. The corrugated zinc exterior cladding, both on the façade and on the roof, provides material continuity on all its opaque faces, combining with exposed timber elements behind the glazed façades.

photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre
photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre

Team:
Architect: Abarca Palma Arquitectos + Cristóbal Noguera
Architects team: Cristóbal Noguera, Francisco Abarca, Camilo Palma, Sebastián Ochoa
Collaborator: Nicolas Acosta
StructuralEngineer: Sebastián Cárcamo
Construction: Miguel Cifuentes, Hernán Echeverría
Photography: Pablo Casals-Aguirre

photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre
photo_credit Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Pablo Casals-Aguirre

Material Used:
1. Facade cladding: Black Zinc, Revestimientos Arratia

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