The client commissioned Studio Saxe to create a dwelling in the jungle that brings the outside in. The property was composed of a slope that went down into a beautiful creek that overlooks the jungle. Studio Saxe decided to create a large triple height space to be able to see the sky all the way from the bottom of the jungle floor and to appreciate the full scope of every tree that surrounds the house.

This volume of space enclosed in glass is a powerful moment that brings shadows inside, natural ventilation and provides a place which is always surrounded by the jungle.
Photography: Andres Garcia Lachner
The counter-intuitive design thought of sinking the house in the ground and at the same time creating a vertical atrium, that creates a powerful moment of discovery when one enters the house. The house is composed of bedrooms that float over the landscape and a common living space that feels inside and out. All is housed within a large roof that creates shade and comfort. When working in a site with abundant vegetation and on a slope, one is tempted to put all living spaces hovering over the landscape, however, we made the very conscious decision of grounding people to the forest floor in the main living area. This allowed us to then be able to create a dramatic tall space on top of it, in a way almost counterintuitively bringing the sounding forest much more strongly to the inside of the property. Photography: Andres Garcia Lachner
This creates a stronger connection betwe...