Rooms in this pink-toned concrete house, designed by architecture studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen, are arranged around a central swimming pool. The residence is set on farmland in central Chile.
Led by Yungay-based architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, the studio created the single-storey Lima House for a retired couple, situating it in a valley close to the town of Chepica in Chile’s O’Higgins Region.
The home’s structure is made from cast concrete that is exposed inside and out. A red pigment has been added to the mix, resulting in a soft pink hue that reflects the warm shades of the local earth.
“The pale rose tone gives the interior a sense of archaic weight,” explained von Ellrichshausen.
“From the exterior, the building’s horizontal form feels timeless, yet the colour itself responds sensitively to the changes in sunlight throughout the day,” she added.
The linear swimming pool slices through the centre of Lima House’s rectangular footprint, forming a courtyard that the various rooms are arranged around.
While the layout may appear simple due to its rectangular form, the plan is more complex than it initially seems.
Curved walls at each corner carve out quarter-cylinder-shaped rooms, introducing unexpected spatial variety and enriching the surrounding areas.
Pezo von Ellrichshausen describe the configuration as “like a fictional encounter between two alphabetical figures, T and U.”
Certain rooms face inward, offering views only of the pool, while others are oriented to frame the surrounding fields, vineyards, and distant mountains.
“The openings follow a precise rhythm, alternating between regular patterns of opacity and transparency, with unique moments of singularity,” Pezo told Dezeen.
“The entire system is a quiet balance between crosswise and lengthwise perspectives.”
Instead of matching the layout to the boundaries of the site, the architects oriented the house on an east-west axis, mirroring the sun’s movement across the sky.
The concrete structure features curved eaves along its north and south elevations, designed to channel rainwater from the green roof so it does not cascade down the exterior walls.
Nine skylights pierce the roof, while a prominent oculus at the western end reveals the room below to the outdoors.
More private spaces are enclosed by sliding glass doors. In these rooms, the walls are clad in timber boards, repurposed from the concrete formwork used during construction.
This approach is consistent with other recent projects by Pezo von Ellrichshausen, such as the yellow concrete Raem House and their own Luna House.
Nevertheless, the architects see a connection between Lima House and their first house, Casa Parr, a retirement home for a single occupant clad in aluminium.
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