A House in the Punilla Valley: Rethinking the Relationship Between Structure and Landscape

Geographical Location and Natural Context

The house is located in the Punilla Valley, in Córdoba Province, near Cerro El Dragón, between the towns of La Falda and Huerta Grande. The site is characterized by gently rolling hills and expansive mountain landscapes, offering the house panoramic views over the valley. This scenery is a defining feature of Córdoba’s semi-arid region.

Topography and Its Impact on the Design

The terrain, marked by steep slopes, extends across the mountain foothills that separate the Punilla Valley from the Sierras Chicas. This pronounced topography presented both a challenge and an opportunity, allowing the architects to design a house that harmonizes with the surrounding nature while taking advantage of the elevation to achieve optimal views.

Architectural Organization and Orientation

The house is positioned on an elevated plateau near the access road, representing the highest point of the plot. It is organized across two levels in a clear linear layout, with spaces oriented toward the northwest. This orientation maximizes natural light and panoramic views, achieving a balanced relationship between architectural form and the surrounding environment.

Ground Floor: A Solid Base with Diverse Functions

The ground floor is conceived as a solid foundation for the house, employing massive concrete walls to support the upper structure and convey a sense of stability and durability. This level accommodates guest rooms, a craft workshop, service areas, and the main entrance accessed from the garage. It also includes an outdoor terrace that connects the interior spaces with the surrounding environment, enhancing interaction with the landscape.

Upper Floor: A Flexible and Organized Structure

The upper floor is defined by an exposed, independent concrete structure organized on a modular grid with a 6-meter span. Perimeter voids are carved into the structure, allowing natural light to penetrate and facilitating the ventilation of interior spaces.

Variation of Dimensions According to Function

The sizes of the units on the upper floor vary depending on their use:

• 6 meters for social areas, such as the living room and dining area.
• 3 meters for private zones, including bedrooms and quieter spaces.

Spatial Separation and Panoramic Views

A generous reception hall separates the two levels, offering panoramic views to the south from the main entrance. This spatial condition enhances the sense of openness and reinforces the integration of interior spaces with the surrounding natural context.

Revealing the Structure as an Architectural Element

The design of the house deliberately exposes the logic of its structural system, allowing the structure itself to become part of the architectural expression. The stone base, composed of massive walls aligned with the modular geometry, supports the upper volume, creating extended halls along all façades except the southern elevation.

The Southern Corridor: Light and Movement

On the southern façade, a longitudinal internal corridor extends, protected by a suspended screen set between the structural frames. Three large concrete volumes intersect the corridor, forming frames for specific exterior views and visually linking the interior spaces with the surrounding landscape.

The Impact of Natural Light

The corridor is naturally lit from above, allowing sunlight to animate and activate the interior spaces adjacent to the southern screen. This condition introduces visual dynamism and a changing sensory experience throughout the day, demonstrating careful consideration of materiality and light in the design process.

A Dialogue with the Surrounding Environment

The house operates as an entity in continuous interaction with the surrounding landscape while maintaining its own distinctive material expression. The designers deliberately selected a restrained material palette limited to natural stone and concrete, or “artificial stone,” unifying all construction elements and highlighting the tension between gravity and mass on one hand, and the lightness introduced by daylight on the other. This light, at times solid and direct, evokes the atmosphere and distinctive geography of the region.

A Flexible and Dynamic Space

The house is conceived as a flexible, dynamic, and unfinished space, embracing this condition as an open work. In other words, it remains incomplete in the most generative sense, continually open to adaptation through the personal use of its inhabitants.

An Intimate Extension of the Environment

The design aspires to become an intimate extension of its surroundings, establishing a continuous dialogue between interior spaces and the natural exterior, and offering its occupants a rich living experience defined by sensory and visual engagement with the place.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

It can be observed that the project offers a modest positive aspect in the clarity of its structural expression and the deliberate use of a limited material palette. The choice of natural stone and concrete reflects an attempt to unify the material language and anchor the building within its surrounding context. Likewise, the strategic orientation of spaces toward natural views provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between light and place, which may be considered a restrained strength within the overall architectural experience.

However, several considerations may limit the project’s practical performance. The reliance on a rigid and heavy structure at the ground-floor level may reduce long-term spatial flexibility and create challenges in adapting to changing user needs. Although the modular grid of the upper level is clearly organized, it may result in spaces that are less dynamic in everyday use when compared to more open or non-modular layouts. In addition, the protected southern corridor and suspended screen, despite their role in framing views, could impose constraints on intuitive circulation within the house and limit consistent daylight interaction for certain interior spaces.

From an architectural perspective, the project can be regarded as a case study in integrating a solid structural system with the surrounding landscape. It offers potential reference value in strategies for orienting space and light, while also suggesting that some design solutions may require further adaptation to become more practical and flexible for a wider range of inhabitants.