How They Pulled It Off: a House Built Into a Hill

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

The project Matias Mosquera calls "Shire" was born, like so many others, out of the pandemic. His firm, AtelierM in Buenos Aires, was hired by a young couple looking for a change: "During lockdown, they wanted to go to the farm or outside the city, to live more in contact with the earth." The result: their very own gentle hill, rolling up out of the flat Pampa grasslands of Argentina. 

"Here in Buenos Aires, it’s really typical to have houses that are like a bar—you walk in one way, you’re in the south, and all the rooms face north," explained Mosquera. Instead, AtelierM took that typical layout and bent it like a blacksmith manipulating a piece of metal into a horseshoe. The bedrooms, dining area, and living room grew, maximizing the sweep of their views, while more utilitarian aspects like the walkway, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom fit into the circle’s curve. (Plus a small library.)