iván bravo's el gauchal house rises over chilean coast as a monolithic barn

a towering barn by iván bravo

along the coastal plains of navidad, chile, architect iván bravo constructs his el gauchal house. rising three floors above a compact site, the barn dwelling is designed to accommodate the needs of four different families — fourteen people in total — that had decided to build a second home together. therefore, multiple and divergent preferences of the different owners are merged harmoniously in one single volume. the verticality of the timber-clad project stands in contrast to the typical constructions of the area. it privileges views on the upper-level terrace, while rethinking the programmatic organization of the common beach house along a vertical axis.

images by bruno giliberto | @brunogiliberto

el gauchal, a monolithic object

rising proudly over the landscape, liberated from the ground, iván bravo‘s el gauchal house maintains a minimal footprint. while the towering construction touches the ground lightly with its narrow plan, the volume invites an unexpected sense of scale. this is exaggerated with the location of windows. minimal openings suggest a monolithic mass, an effect which is softened by the application of vertical timber cladding finished in bleached white.

iván bravo comments on the design process: ‘the project constantly repeats the same operations in plan and section, so there is a reciprocate connection that blur the existence of a unique orientation of the house. this happens in the formal composition, where the plan and section silhouette are identical, and also in the organization of program that is comprise of three areas in each of the three floors.’

communal living along coastal chile

iván bravo connects the interior spaces of his el gauchal house with a central void. this circulatory element serves doubly to enlarge the spatial perception of common areas. there are four private rooms, one for each family, that are distributed on each floor at both extremes of the house, ensuring that all spaces are equally close to the center. the sizes of the rooms are also identical, avoiding any type of exclusivity between families. with this typology, the house is lived like a small hotel where no one is the owner of anything and all shares in equal condition the space, suppressing any kind of hierarchy.