A small beach house located in Las Arenas, Peru expands outdoor living into an interior cocoon with a large opening in the ceiling for heat release and ventilation. Designed by Artadi Arquitectos the beach house was conceived as a “container box” to hold all the essentials for indoor living without closing off the exterior lifestyle. To do this, the volume has strategic voids cut into its silhouette and is also raised up off of the ground below. Raising the floor of the home allows for a small pool to be inset into the floor just left of the stairs.
While large sections of the volume are left exposed to the elements, other sections are closed up tight. The side wall of the beach house is in complete contrast to the wide open façade.
The side wall has one vertical window in the outdoor social zone and one horizontal window in the interior zone. Another vertical slit defines the separation of the private area. Instead of the usual side windows in the bedroom, a void has been cut into the silhouette to create a small terrace accessed by wall to wall glass sliders.
The kitchen is in a self contained space located on the other side of the beach house and has a view to the small pool while at the same time a window opens to the outdoor social area.
While the kitchen may appear detached and closed off, it has a stunning view of the beach a few feet away and is cleverly cooled off by the rising air currents from the inset pool.
The kitchen zone expands into the outdoor area by just under half the pool length.
the pool is just a few feet away from the outdoor sitting area and both the pool and sitting area take advantage of the large void in the ceiling above. The Interior space is located behind the outdoor social area and can be closed off via a wall of sliding glass doors.
The outdoor lounge area is outfitted with a large dining table that starts just below the long and linear horizontal window.
As day shifts to night the sunset is in full view from the outdoor lounge area.
With the fading daylight, pot lights statically placed around the ceiling void light the home as though they where stars in the sky above.
The oranges, reds and purples of the sunset create interesting colour variations to the various planes of the beach house architecture.
Even during the day, light and shadow create a changing dynamic to the surfaces of the beach house.
Artadi Arquitecto
Photography by Alexander Kornhuber
