URUGUAY A HOME FOR RURAL WORKERS
In the Florida countryside, in south-central Uruguay, in an area of forestry and livestock farming, Urzúa Soler has created a functional yet attractive home to accommodate local workers and their families, while also serving as a retreat from work, combining vernacular and technology.
The spirit of the project is captured in the duality between the typological memory of the region’s rural buildings and off-site prefabricated technology: a work of epigraphic clarity, free of rhetoric and marked by the pragmatism typical of rural living, here translated into a standardized production process.
The building adopts the common conformation of the region, dictated by climatic and economic factors, expressed through a few select materials and a constructive integrity that shines through in the clear structural hierarchy of the tectonic elements. The robust, single-story volume, with a pronounced longitudinal shape and raised on a concrete base that isolates it from the ground, is topped by a double-pitched roof clad in metal, particularly resistant to atmospheric agents, echoing the linguistic code of the rural hut.
The structural system, clearly exposed both inside and out, openly denounces tectonic hierarchies and is the figurative soul of the composition: the structure, built entirely in Chile due to the lack of structural wood in the area and reassembled on site in a week, consists of a repeated modular sequence of pillars and beams, reinforced at the ends by diagonals that support the roof.
It is a structural rhythm that determines the sequence of the domestic spaces: from the interconnected common areas, bathed in light filtering through the large windows, where the circular volume housing the kitchen and bathrooms undermines the seraphic composure of the rectilinear layout, to the private and compact sleeping area, crossed by a rigorous axial corridor.
Inside, light natural wood finishes on the walls and coverings, contrasting with the dark tones of the living room wall unit, enhance the warm, inviting atmosphere of the spaces, punctuated by understated yet comfortable furnishings.
Source: Domusweb.it – Photo credits: Marcos Guiponi
