Concrete takes centre-stage inside this dramatic hilltop home designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Alejandro Aravena, set in Chile’s Coquimbo.

The radical, four-bedroom vacation house is part of the Ochoalcubo project – a pioneering ‘architectural laboratory’ led by the entrepreneur and architecture lover Eduardo Godoy. Leading Chilean and Japanese practices including Aravena, Smiljan Radic, Toyo Ito and Sou Fujimoto were asked to design a series of ground-breaking homes on the coast of Ochoquebradas.

Alejandro Aravena and his practice Elemental have built a rugged structure, comprising three poured concrete volumes that are stacked one against the other. On the market via Chile Sotheby’s International Realty for $1.53M, the home blends with the surrounding landscape and has an ancient feel, as though it’s been there forever.

Its boulder-like appearance and simple composition takes cues from the notion of ‘primitivism’ and pairing things back to the fundamentals. The practice took cues from the idea that ‘a weekend house is ultimately a kind of retreat where people allowed themselves to suspend the conventions of life and go back to a more essential living’.

To that end, it holds a ‘place for a fire’ rather than a formal fireplace, and its concrete walls are left exposed. Interiors channel modernist principles about flow of space, truth to materials, and indoor/outdoor living. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls provide sweeping views of the striking landscape and Pacific Ocean.

The house is set over four levels, with wooden shutters opening on each level.

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