Estudio Diagonal’s latest project, a modern barnhouse titled Ridge House, is located on the outskirts of the city of Puerto Varas, in the southerly Llanquihue province of Chile’s Los Lagos Region.
A modern barnhouse with a material twist
Described by the architects as a new take on the traditional barnhouse – a typology ‘that might even be one of the most commonly applied in the south of Chile’ – the Ridge House is stripped back, agricultural and no-nonsense. Hard-wearing and abrupt, the folded, asymmetrical roof of the 120 sq m house conceals two modest bedrooms, a double-height living space and a garage, clad in translucent plastic.
Sebastián Armijo Oyarzún, one of the project architects at Estudio Diagonal, explains how the house came through post-pandemic internal migration. ‘It opened the door to working from home, so a lot of people from big cities like Santiago migrated south for a better life.’ Puerto Varas was a popular choice (‘for better or worse’), a small city of under 40,000 people with a strong Germanic tradition.
The Ridge House doesn’t follow this particular European model. Instead, the aesthetics are derived from pure function and cost-effective simplicity. Surrounded on two sides by a simple wooden deck, the entire house is raised up off the ground on steel columns.
Finishes and fixtures are sparse, almost monastic, with white walls, untreated wood and a rigorous simplicity to the rhythm and profile of the balustrades and mullions. Corrugated metal cladding swathes the barn-like structure, standing in stark contrast to the pared-back lightness of the garage and service area.
The main living space reaches up to the high point of the off-kilter roof, with a mezzanine level containing an additional living area and a bedroom/study beyond. Downstairs, tucked behind the kitchen diner, is the principal bedroom and two bathrooms.
Estudio Diagonal is based between southern Chile and Spain. The studio’s work often emphasises the quotidian and vernacular, sometimes using recycled or reclaimed materials and components.
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