Izquierdo Lehmann Arquitectos and Francisco Saul have completed a block of five row houses in Santiago, which are grouped under a large roof to give the impression of a single residence.
The San Crescente housing ensemble is named after its street in the Las Condes neighbourhood of the Chilean capital.
The San Crescente project comprises five conjoined houses
According to the architects, the land was purchased by a group of friends that wanted to develop a housing format different than the typical blocks available in Chile.
The long building is made of glue-laminated timber, a wood technology that makes long and sturdy members by glueing and compressing smaller wood elements.
The houses all open up onto a central outdoor area
This material forms the structure of each of the five houses that make up San Crescente, which are separated by concrete demising walls. The Chilean pine structure forms a continuous pattern across the long facade of the building, lending the impression of a single volume rather than five separate units.
Glue-laminated timber was used to construct the building
"The repetition of this module qualifies the facades with a constant rhythm that masks the differences of rooms and ownership within a unitary volume," said the architects.
"Like a large house for five families that opens onto the street as if they were one."
Concrete walls divide each of the residences
Within each unit, the architects did not build any walls on the ground flo...