Budget Breakdown: They Built Their $60K Home to Preserve the Surrounding Forest
Instead of spreading out, an architect couple opt for a taller dwelling with a smaller footprint in Puerto Varas, Chile.
Instead of spreading out, an architect couple opt for a taller dwelling with a smaller footprint in Puerto Varas, Chile.
Camilo Fuentealba and Eduardo Díaz met in 2010 while studying architecture in the Chilean city of Concepción. They hit it off—both personally and professionally—founded their own firm, Estudio Sur, in 2016, and moved to the resort town of Puerto Varas a few years later.
Funds were limited, but the pair found an affordable plot of land about 15 minutes west of the city. Its biggest selling point was that it was still encased in native Valdivian rainforest. To protect the site, they went with a small footprint (about 1,075 square feet), building up instead of out. Then they placed square windows to frame the surrounding trees—from trunk to canopy—so that as you rise through the open, split-level plan, which is arranged around an atrium, you can "view the forest from different perspectives," Camilo says.
See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: They Built Their $60K Home to Preserve the Surrounding Forest
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