Mezzanina Cabin

Mezzanina Cabin 

Arce&Westermeier

Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Felipe Arce, Felipe Westermeier

ENGINEERING
7d Ingeniería

MANUFACTURERS
Cintac, Gyplac, Imperial

COLLABORATORS
Daniela Alvarado

PHOTOGRAPHS
Nicolas Saieh, Felipe Westermeier

AREA
45 M²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Valdivia, Chile

CATEGORY
Cabins & Lodges

Mezzanina Cabin
© Felipe Westermeier

The project is located in the northern sector of the commune of Valdivia, Los Rios Region (Chile), immersed in an evergreen vegetation that together with a strong rainy climate characterizes the so-called Valdivian Rainforest.

The commission originally consisted of a small shelter of 45 square meters, adjacent to the main house of the property.

Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh
Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh

The volume is specifically inserted in a sloping area within the property, gaining a height through piles that seek panoramic views of the area, specifically towards the west, where the Calle-Calle River is located.

The project materializes this search through a completely glazed face, this visual escape is built through a curtain wall of almost six meters long, thus achieving an accentuated friction between the domestic interior and the wild exterior.

Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh
Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh
Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh

From the outside, the resulting faces are solid, mono-material, and dark, containing small indispensable openings (as in the kitchen and bathroom) but continuing to propose a mostly hermetic volumetry.

The sloping roof provides a good reaction to heavy local rainfall and also generates a height of five meters on the east façade, suggesting the existence of an intermediate level space, a space in height that is part of the origin of the project; the mezzanine.

The proposal develops the habitat as the main architectural model, however, the assignment posed a need not always involved in this typology; an intermediate privacy space where a second intermittent user will be incorporated.

Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh
Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh

Therefore, the question was posed: How can a semi-private space be incorporated into a fundamentally mono-private space, as is the habitat model?

The answer brought a space in height to the interior of the house, a mezzanine that in addition to meeting the need raised, could function as a storage space, decorative qualities, or simply as a living room.

Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh
Mezzanina Cabin
© Nicolas Saieh

This intermediate space invited us to conceptualize a programmatic battery in its lower part, this battery combined and synthesized the most private uses of domesticity; the bathroom, a walking closet, the entrance hall, and an area with kitchen appliances, freeing all the rest for a large continuous open floor plan.

The resulting mezzanine functions as a living space of 1.4 meters in height range of possibilities of use, which is accessed from a cat staircase right in the access cubicle, which is also part of the battery of programs.

Mezzanina Cabin
© Felipe Westermeier
Mezzanina Cabin
© Felipe Westermeier

Finally, two open spaces are achieved with a graduated privacy ratio, a sort of large habitable step with two levels that point to the main visual leakage of the volume.


Mezzanina Cabin
Elevation
Mezzanina Cabin
Elevation
Mezzanina Cabin
Elevation
Mezzanina Cabin
Section


Mezzanina Cabin
Plan - First floor
Mezzanina Cabin
Plan - Second floor


Mezzanina Cabin
Axo