Casa Duna by WHALE! is a Sphinx-Like House in Chille

The house was elevated above the street and road by a rock-filled base, formalizing a set of level gardens and courtyards for smaller shrubs and trees to gain a foothold beneath the trees of the greater landscape of the garden and the surrounding landscape beyond.

“The interiors do not encompass the entirety of the volume that is appreciated from the exterior,” noted the studio. “Instead, there is a linear and alternating sequence of rooms and courtyards.”

The main courtyard is a linear configuration of patio, pool, and gravel lawn at the center of the house enclosed on the exterior sides between the two volumes.

Accompanied by the smaller adjacent private courtyard, these larger than average spaces contrast with the enclosed expression of the exterior walls and add a subtle sense of spatial intrigue that grounds the expression.

The volumes were clad in untreated wood boards three quarters of an inch thick, long thin slat-like boards that cover the joints of sheets set without gaps. This cladding was intended to reflect the wood fencing of the surrounding natural landscape of farm plots and other natural enclosures of the area.

A consistent, albeit shallow, mono-pitched roof creates a shadow line on the facade, adding relief and also contrast to the exterior expression of the portals at the perimeter.

The unified expression of the exterior materials continues on to the decks and fences beyond the sculptural massing of the house, unifying the expression in the landscape and around the perimeter.

Taking advantage of the geometric composition created out of building the exterior of the house around rooms and gardens, the windows and glazing was carefully tucked into the expression, with many larger punctuated openings set back with beveled reveals more typical of masonry buildings.

On small dormer-like portals, the same beveling was pulled to create views that are focused in the unique trapezoidal opening created by the wood construction that unlike drywall interiors, has the same interior expression on the softer side.

“These larger windows and openings provide the revealed, rather untucked views, giving a sense of greater mystery to the rooms that open their exclamatory presence by pulling shut a large door in return,” said the studio.

Continuing the story of the formal elevation differences set throughout the property, a staircase open to the roof leads to an open loft bedroom that pulls back from the balcony to open directly to the site and beyond.

This open area offers a unique view open towards the geography of the landscape at a distance from the property.

Entering the house reveals a linear living expectation on the lower floor, with living room, kitchen, and enclosed dining formed as a part of the greater geometric take on the house.

Details continue the monolithic sense of the exterior with knotty wood running seamlessly into rigorous openings back-lighted with a careful placement of large, geometric windows.

Outside in the linear courtyard is a pool, and a similar approach to detailing is taken from what can be seen from the well lite through the larger interior bay windows at their end, details on their own piers that echo the cladding from the exterior without necessarily suggesting the intricate design of the exterior.

The overall aim of this subtlety is an inverse idea of a house that controls, by way of preservation, the dual impressions in different settings.