The building was newly constructed in a spacious lot containing beautiful specimens of tropical plants, such as lapachos and mangos. The residence was located on the highest spot of the lot, preserving the majority of the trees.
The building consists of a main volume, which contains the ambassador’s residence itself and some representative halls; an adjacent services volume, and a free standing pavilion, containing a pool and a sheltered grilling area.
The building design was inspired by the local architecture and the modern versions of it. Among the usual elements of this architecture is the ‘brise-soleil’, which clads the main volume and shelters it from the sun harshness. It was designed using a raw concrete structure and lapacho wood slats, and so implementing a strongly rooted local material –in the same way that the so-called ‘Spanish’ brick is rooted there, or Arabic roofing tiles are rooted in rainy environments.
The different volumes are articulated by a walking itinerary that allows for their relations to be understood by a visitor.
On the inside the main flight of stairs stands out as a great wooden piece of furniture, which is at the same time topped by a skylight shaft, to which the private residential spaces are visually linked through lattice walls.
