House MO was designed in 2014 by Gonzalo Mardones, featuring spectacular ocean views and situated in Zapallar, Chile.
MO House is located at an area of steep slope facing the sea coast of Chile in the commune of Zapallar. The house is buried with clearly no intention to interrupt the wonderful view to the horizon from the public road, so it is accessed by stairs and ramps going deep into the mountain to discover again, from inside the house, the sea, coast and breaker.
The access to the house is in the middle level, which contains the public areas of the house: living room, dining room and kitchen. The rooms were located on the ground floor with direct access to the garden; and the main room was designed to be at the upper floor, on a suspended volume that dominates the view and highlights the clear intention of the house to capture the horizon.
The house itself is a big x-axis which is evidenced by the suspended volume that gives measure. Each level of the house has terraces to be protected from the west sun and wind by large eaves and beams.
Reinforced concrete with added titanium dioxide was the only material used in this housing. The reinforced concrete allows the work to bury, structure in slope, and achieve great structural lights in a seismic country like Chile. Titanium dioxide added to the concrete allows bleaching of this and helps, like trees, to the elimination of toxic gases produced by vehicles. The whole interior of the house has been painted white, with the clear intention of enhancing the natural lighting inside the house, which occurs through windows to the horizon and a series of skylights and light courtyards and ventilation. All the carpentry, windows and doors are made of cedar.
The cover has been carefully worked as a fifth facade finished in white stone, as it is the main facade of the house from the external road. White color in stones of the facade was worked like proper white color of the sea breaker in the coast. In addition, the white roof leaves a bed of air between this one and the slab, protecting it from direct sun, airing it and influencing on the indoor temperature inside the house.
About Gonzalo Mardones: He gets his degree as architect from the Universidad Católica de Chile, where he graduates with the Maximum Honors. He receives the First Prize in the Architecture Biennale, for the best degree project among all the Architectural Schools in Chile, for his project for urban renewal of the South-West Center of Santiago. He has been a professor of architectural design workshops and directed degree projects in the Faculties of Architecture of the Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Central, Universidad Andrés Bello and Universidad Finis Terrae, in addition to having been guest professor and lecturer in different universities in Chile, and abroad. His work has been published by the main architectural magazines and honored at Biennales. He has been a member of the National Commission of Competitions of the Architects Association in Chile and a Founding member of the Association of Architectural Practices (AOA). In 2008 received the ‘Degree Distinction’ by the ‘UMSA Universidad Mayor de San Andrés’, Bolivia.
[All images shot by and courtesy of: by Nico Saieh]
