Catalina House

Catalina House is a single family house with 85 m², located at Punta de Lobos (Wolves' Point) A fishermen and surfers’ village in the south-central Chilean coast. The place has gone through a strong real state development process these recent years due to the
touristic potential of the place, this has caused a notorious increment of the land prices. Because of this the vacant lot available for the project had reduced dimensions (335 m²) with a slope that needed to be taken into account.
The project is located inside a condominium with a high density for the area. Breaking angles of the facades and roof and making it stand out through contrast of materials, textures, and reflections on its faces, the house produces some distance from the environment standing out of the immediate context. What originally seemed to be constraints, turned into opportunities that formally define the house. The project strategy consisted on: Rising the house over pilotis to free the small plot on the ground level, also improving the sea and waves views which are the main attraction of the place.
The architecture commission was made by clients that spend most of their time at the beach, because of this, the building has two small bedrooms and a bathroom, considering however ample common areas, spatially linked between each other, where the family spends most of its time when in the house.
Inside the house, light is the main character. At the entrance, its importance is settled by means of a great skylight that accentuates the entrance inviting to raise the view of the sky.