Boat Design Inspired an Avid Sailor’s Buenos Aires Home

From the road, this weekend house designed by Argentine studio Bracamonte Yerba doesn’t give too much away. Passersby see only a large, windowless wall of white-painted brick. The rooflines, however, reveal the home’s singularity: One plane rises steeply over the ground floor, while another intersects it at a more acute angle above a veranda.

The homeowners, Violeta and Andy, a couple from Buenos Aires, had never imagined spending their free time in a residential country club, a type of gated suburban development that became popular among Argentine urbanites several decades ago. But as parents to an active young boy, they decided to rent a vacation home in the leafy country club of Campo Chico, where some of his friends spent the summer. The more relaxed routine there, just an hour from the city, took hold. "It’s another lifestyle," says Andy, who runs a web development company. "Our seven-year-old grabs his bike to go to a friend’s house and returns late in the day, or sometimes they all come over."

When a property became available on a street lined with handsome mature trees, they decided to buy it, even though the existing house would need to be torn down as it was too dated, small, and compartmentalized for their needs. They saw this as an opportunity to design a truly bespoke second home. "Being fully aware that this would be our only chance to build something from scratch, it was important to find an architect who could understand our sensibilities," says Violeta, a creative director. "Not someone that does whatever is currently in fashion."