Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has hollowed the huge tilted volume of this weekend getaway along the Pacific Ocean in Chile to form an opening for a fire inside.
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect, and founder of Chilean studio Elemental, designed the property for a rugged site in Los Vilos, located 250 kilometres north from Santiago. Called Ocho Quebradas, which translates as Eight Ravines, it forms the first in a series of retreats that are planned for the area.

"We saw the site and the fact of being a weekend house as an opportunity to explore a certain primitiveness," said Elemental in a description.
"The geography was so brutal, that only a strong and manly set of elements was appropriate," it added. "The Pacific Ocean here is not pacific at all; the water is white do to the violence while meeting the earth."
The simple construction comprises three massive volumes of varying sizes and arrangements.
A horizontal concrete volume cantilevers off the edge of the sloped plot ending with a large window to the view, and contains all of the facilities required by a couple. Rising tall behind it is a vertical volume that houses additional guest bedrooms with a terrace on top.

Tilted to rest against the latter, the third volume is hollowed inside to form an opening for a circular fire pit below. Inside the house, the opening punctures down to the floor of the volume underneath to make space for the open fire, with glazing wrapped around ...