Patagonia House, Contemporary Río Negro Property, Argentina Home Design Images

One Column House : Residence in Patagonia

Río Negro Lake House Extension design by DiA Studio, Argentina, South America

post updated 19 June 2021 ; 22 Feb 2013

One Column House

Design: DiA Studio

New Residence in Patagonia

Location: Patagonia, Argentina

Introduction

In March, Amsterdam based DiA Studio is set to begin construction of one of its latest projects, the One Column House.

image : DiA Studio | 3D Notos

One Column House is an extension and refurbishment for an existing small old summer house on the shores of a Patagonian lake in the South of Argentina.

images : DiA Studio | 3D Notos

The conditions of the existing house lack of an optimum spatial and functional distribution that could fulfill the needs and the manners that the summer house is being lived and experienced: the existing house sits far away from the lake shore neglecting the most privileged views towards the lake and its landscape, while at the same time both neighbor houses at the sides block the vistas towards the lake since their footprints were settled closer to the lake shore. Besides, the interior space was characterized by a deep dark dinning/ living area with limited relation to the outside with a deficient connection between the kitchen and the private and public rooms. At the same time, the small size bedrooms were inefficient to cope with the actual family growth.

images : DiA Studio

DiA Studio decided to incorporate a detached volume as an extension to the existing house which grounds closer to the lake shore and oriented towards the best landscape vistas, creating an internal patio between the existing house and the extension volume. Thus the new extension establishes a clear division between the public and private areas, the old and the new.

While the existing house will host two large bedrooms, the main bathroom in the ground floor and a secondary bedroom in the first level, all public areas will be linearly organized within the extension volume: open kitchen, dining place and the lounge area; all these spaces will share a wide open wooden terrace deck facing and open to the lake shore.

images : DiA Studio

The extension will be mainly constructed by a reinforced concrete structure: a planar roof runs widely from one neighbor boundary line to the other and is strengthened by four inverted beams that converge in the only load bearing vertical element of the house. This column is formed by a pair of twisted concrete shear walls performing in different ways.

One Column House researches on the multiple performances the architectural element of a column could achieve beyond its structural capacity. Firstly, it is an element that marks a central place by integrating in itself a fireplace, while articulating the program by organizing the different functional spaces around it and orienting site-specific vistas. At the same time, it stores the fireplace logs and works as an infrastructural device where the rain water pipes are embedded within the twisted shear walls while opening up the concrete roof enabling natural zenithal light come through.

image : DiA Studio

One Column House Patagonia – Building Information

Project Title: One Column House | Patagonia, Argentina
Project: Lake House Extension | Río Negro, Argentina
Description: Extension & Refurbishment
Function: Residential
Building surface 160 m²
Building volume 480 m³
Building site 620 m²
Concept, Schematic, Design Development: Mar 2012 – Sep 2012
Construction: Mar 2013
Design: DiA Studio – Luis Etchegorry architect; Executive architect: Sebastián Costanzi
Structural Engineer: Urbana Saiquen

Visualisations: 3D Notos

One Column House Patagonia images / information from DiA Studio

Location: Río Negro, Argentina, South Americ