Tokyo firm Office of Ryue Nishizawa has created an undulating concrete roof to span a long weekend house on a promontory towards the Pacific Ocean in Chile.
House in Los Vilos is a retreat on the Chilean coast that was completed by the eponymous Japanese studio of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Ryue Nishizawa, who also runs firm SANAA with architect Kazuyo Sejima.

Office of Ryue Nishizawa designed the wavy roof to follow the contours of its site ? a rocky high land that juts out to the water. The dips of the undulations also segment the long, curved house to mark different areas in place of walls.
"The roof descends to the ground in places and gently divides the space beneath into segments, which determine the form," said the studio. "There are no walls to speak of ? it is like a building of ground and roof only in the midst of abundant nature."

House in Los Vilos' monolithic roof is held up by glazed walls and steel columns on the perimeter. The arches span between angular lines that the studio chose to create larger openings to the surroundings.
"In terms of structure, arches that connect diagonally-arranged landing points make it possible to create large spans while opening various directions toward the surrounding landscape," Office of Ryue Nishizawa continued.

"The space comes with a diversity of openness that can never be achieved with classic arch structures such as the vault roof," it said.
The roof divides the house into...