Casa Magnolia — Garden Views Shape a Calm Contemporary House Life
Casa Magnolia stands in San Isidro, Argentina, where dense vegetation and traditional villas frame its pale brick volumes. Designed by Estudio PK – Ignacio Pessagno & Lilian Kandus, the house balances privacy, openness, and a clear material idea rooted in an ecological white brick shell. The result is a contemporary dwelling that folds light, shade, and landscape into a quiet but precise architectural presence.
White brick catches the morning light and throws a soft glow across the garden terrace. Shadows move along the patterned facade as the day turns.
Casa Magnolia is a single-family house in San Isidro, Argentina, conceived by Estudio PK – Ignacio Pessagno & Lilian Kandus around one material and its environmental performance. The project organizes daily life behind a continuous white brick envelope that filters light, lends privacy, and reduces energy demand through passive strategies. Material consistency outside and inside anchors the architecture while it responds to climate, context, and a leafy neighborhood of older mansions.
Brick As Envelope
The house rises as a compact white volume toward the street, where the brick skin reads almost monolithic and quietly protects everyday life behind it. Patterned solids and voids in the masonry turn that same surface into a parasol at the stair, cutting glare while still admitting controlled morning light. Toward service areas, the pattern tightens, trading openness for privacy yet preserving cross-ventilation and daylight. Using one material for the entire volume gives conceptual clarity and a measured presence within the older built fabric around it.
Light, Shade, Privacy
From the street, a metal enclosure marks the threshold, and a lateral path through vegetation leads to the access patio. This north-facing void draws sun deep into the ground floor all day, setting up a brighter, more open character once past the compact urban face. Above, a first-floor screen wall aligns with the patio and reads as a floating plane, reinforcing the idea of suspended brick and air between inside and out. Within the stair core, shifting light and shadow throughout the day underscore how the patterned envelope works as both environmental filter and visual veil.
Rooms Around Garden
Public rooms occupy the ground level, opening through continuous glazing toward a garden centered on an ancient magnolia tree. A long gallery mediates between interior and exterior, acting as a generous gathering zone that extends daily routines into the landscape in shaded comfort. Service functions line the south edge, keeping utilities compact while freeing the north and garden sides for outlook and light. Below, a basement micro cinema and wine cellar nestle into the earth, adding intimate, inward-focused rooms to the domestic sequence.
Sustainability In Construction
The ecological white brick is more than a visual choice: it cuts up to 31.8% of CO2 emissions per square meter when compared with conventional masonry. Made from 100% recycled material, the units are dimensioned to reduce mortar use by almost half and lighten the facade leaf, limiting waste and embodied energy in construction. The envelope pairs with passive strategies such as bioclimatic orientation, a double-wall build-up, hermetic double glazing, and green planters interlaced with terraces. On the active side, solar panels trim operational energy, reinforcing the house’s aim to reconcile sophistication with measurable environmental performance.
Material Continuity Inside
Noble materials carry from exterior to interior, where aluminum openings, wood surfaces, and natural stone work with the brick shell rather than compete with it. Pure forms and a restrained palette let the tectonics of the walls, slabs, and openings read clearly in everyday use. Walkable terraces extend the upper floor into the treetops, setting up vantage points over neighboring roofs and the magnolia canopy. Throughout the house, planted patios and large planters press greenery against thresholds so that construction and vegetation feel constantly intertwined.
By day, the facade holds a pale, almost weightless presence against the garden, while at night the patterned brick glows softly from within. Casa Magnolia settles into its neighborhood through material discipline and climate-aware construction, allowing the magnolia tree, filtered light, and quiet masonry surfaces to carry most of the expression.
Photography by Alejandro Peral
Visit Estudio PK – Ignacio Pessagno & Lilian Kandus
