DEHESA TEXT

HOUSE IN LA DEHESA Location: Golf Lomas de la Dehesa. Lo Barnechea. Santiago, Chile Architect : Enrique Browne Collaborator Architect: Isabel Perelló Land plot area: 1510 M2. Constructed area: 335 M2 Date: 1988

The house was located at the lower slopes of the valley below the mountains in La Dehesa. The arrival to the terrain is by the western route. Beginning from there, the terrain lowers with a steep slope towards the east, where it borders with a golf club. These characteristics assure the site spectacular views of the Andes Mountains. A house where one could live “in” the hill, like in Valparaíso, it was considered. The house was organizad like a small town, with terraces and flights of stairs that descended with the slope. From the street, two stones walls closed the view towards the mountains and protecting the intimacy of the house. The only visible portions include a part of the pergola that protects the parking area and the volume which contains the vertical service circulations. Between the containing wall, a flight of stairs begins with a forced perspective of the entrance level of the actual house. Descending the stairs, the volume containing the services areas comes into view as well as the mountains. Returning, one can find the main entrance or continue descending by the exterior of the building. Indeed, these different volumes are grouped around a great stairway that pivots about the same axis. The stairway continues to arrive at terraces on the different levels until finally reaching the natural terrain with the garden and pool. With the different turns, a variety of views are obtained of the mountains, the golf, and the far off neighborhoods. The volumes that the view mark out as well as the paths are slightly outside of the orthogonal, since the north-south borders which are not parallel. Above the “small town”, there is a high “parrón” entwined with the mass of deciduous leaves which offer greenery and shade in the spring and summer. This leafy protection is necessary for reasons of thermal regulation, given the numerous reflective surfaces of roofs and terraces. This pergola can also serve as a visual reference to the unevenness of the volumes. The house continains three levels. The uppermost contains the entrance and the service quarters. On the intermediate level are the publics areas (the living room, dining room, library) and the services areas. The bedrooms are located on the lowest level. But, as anticipated, the program separates the space into smaller volumes which emphasize the characteristics of the small town at each level.