Casa Duna, designed by WHALE!, is a dunelike house set on a flat terrain in the town of Tunquén, Chile. Arranged around linear gardens, the house inverts its geometry, with windows and balconies sitting within the interior, leaving the exterior largely unadorned.

Geometric Timber Design
The house was elevated above the street and road by a rock-filled base, formalizing a set of level gardens and courtyards for smaller shrubs and trees to gain a foothold beneath the trees of the greater landscape of the garden and the surrounding landscape beyond.
“The interiors do not encompass the entirety of the volume that is appreciated from the exterior,” noted the studio. “Instead, there is a linear and alternating sequence of rooms and courtyards.”
Unified Exterior Expression
The main courtyard is a linear configuration of patio, pool, and gravel lawn at the center of the house enclosed on the exterior sides between the two volumes.
Accompanied by the smaller adjacent private courtyard, these larger than average spaces contrast with the enclosed expression of the exterior walls and add a subtle sense of spatial intrigue that grounds the expression.

The volumes were clad in untreated wood boards three quarters of an inch thick, long thin slat-like boards that cover the joints of sheets set without gaps. This cladding was intended to reflect the wood fencing of the surrounding natural landscape of farm plots and other natural enclosures of the area.
A cons...