Between the dark blue waters and the green fields, rises above the cliff the Mirador – a concrete holiday home and a design as extraordinary as the surrounding landscape. Mirador means a lookout point or an observation tower in French, and it’s sure built to be one. The house is elevated from the ground, to enable panoramic views of the rocky shoreline and the Pacific ocean at once. The home is located in Tunquen, a small coastal town only hour and forty-five minutes away from Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Influenced by the famous Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, architect Victor Gubbins at Gubbins Arquitectos designed this amazing concrete home with a similar architectural concept in mind – its main floor is supported by a smaller base volume, creating symmetrical cantilevered areas, just like with Savoye. Concrete can sure do wonders.
The home is the architect’s own holiday retreat. But notice how unusually it’s built, notice the concrete architecture that looks like it was roughly put together from concrete blocks, and notice the strange art piece upfront. It’s built more like a fortress, not a home. And indeed, this design also pays tribute to the Brutalist concrete architecture of the sixties. Fascinating.
A ramp leads to the main floor that boasts a large social area, two open terraces and living quarters on each side.
As it’s raised above the ground, Mirador can be spotted from far away from the fields and from the ocean.
A single, smaller volume at its base supports Mirador. Inside, there are a changing room and a bathroom, for the beach goers.
A spiral staircase leads up to a roof terrace.
Large skylights let the sunlight in during the day.
A terrace overlooking the ocean and the land at once.
A simple geometric house design with a solar orientation.
Gubbins Arquitectos
Photography by Marcos Mendizabal
