Casa Salvaje Rewrites Coastal Family Living with Layered Courtyards
Casa Salvaje stands in El Salvaje, Chacras Marítimas, Argentina, as a vacation house where Sol Galliano draws family life into direct contact with sea air and rural quiet. Conceived for large gatherings, the concrete and stone structure pivots around a central courtyard and rooftop terrace, guiding movement through light, water, and planted ground. Large and small moments of encounter shape how the family shares time across seasons.
Morning light slides across the stone basement and up into the hovering concrete slabs above. From the edge of the plot, the house reads as a low, horizontal journey rather than a single object.
This is a vacation house in a rural coastal neighborhood of Argentina, designed by Sol Galliano as a home for a large family that moves together yet needs pockets of privacy. The project organizes a continuous architectural experience through circulation: paths, stairs, courtyards, and terraces align with views and sun. Rooms follow these lines of movement, turning daily routines into a route through air, water, and landscape.
Casa Salvaje rests on a stone basement that absorbs service areas and anchors the house on the terrain. Above, two concrete slabs hold the common rooms and bedrooms, set to capture open views and precise sunlight throughout the day.
Approach And Courtyard
Arrival begins outside, along a path that threads through the rural plot toward the raised volume. An exterior stair wraps a planted courtyard with a tree and a pond, pulling visitors upward in a slow arc. That stair is more than access; it’s a vantage line where sea breezes, reflected water, and the rough texture of stone and concrete register in quick sequence. From this climb, the courtyard becomes an internal landscape, already tying ground level to the social rooms and the rooftop terrace above.
Circulation Around Void
Inside, movement traces the perimeter of the same central courtyard, which acts as a soft-edged void at the heart of the plan. Organic contours and transparent boundaries set up long, angled views between social areas, so family members cross sightlines even when they’re in different rooms. Light spills through this inner garden toward the south-facing children’s play area, which borrows brightness and visual depth from the planted core. Circulation stays legible and compact, yet each turn offers a new relation to the courtyard, whether at floor level or from above.
Rooms Oriented To Sun
The whole house is rotated in relation to its plot boundaries to tune living areas to the sun’s path. Social rooms open north for steady daylight, then slide westward to catch sunsets over the rural horizon. The master suite and the most frequently used bedrooms turn east, catching sunrise and the gentle light of morning before the day warms. Even with compact bathrooms and minimal private footprints, the careful orientation and surrounding views keep each room connected to the landscape beyond its walls.
Water And Terrain
A landscape walkway stretches across the property, stitching together outdoor programs as part of the same journey through the house. Along this route, the swimming pool, fire pit, children’s play zone, and natural slopes arrive one after another, extending domestic life deep into the plot. The pool, jacuzzi, and solarium echo the organic cuts in the concrete slabs above, so voids in plan repeat in water, shadow, and sky reflections. Indoor and outdoor rooms share this geometry, which keeps circulation legible even as activities shift across seasons.
Wood, Shade, And Privacy
Within the concrete frame, interior walls and built-in furnishings are wrapped in wood, adding warmth and continuity as people move from hall to room. The same material extends outside as wooden louvers along the bedroom fronts, where they temper direct sun and shield private areas from view. These slatted surfaces adjust the level of openness without breaking the overall sense of a continuous volume. From basement to rooftop terrace, Casa Salvaje reads as one drawn-out route, calibrated to light, family rhythms, and the gentle rise and fall of the coastal terrain.
Photography by Cecilia Longar
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