BEAM TEAM
Guillermo Acuña is fascinated by the traditional stilt houses found in the south of Chile. His Santiago-based firm, Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados (GAAA), has long focused on crafting contemporary iterations of this typology. It ‘expresses the possibilities of the orders of the plant kingdom and traditional construction in wood and fibres, which manifests the impressive geography of Chile’, says Acuña.
The studio’s latest take, or ‘seagull place’, is most easily accessed by boat or light aircraft. The island faces the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Sea of Chiloé and southern Andes mountains on its eastern horizon. The house sits in a natural clearing of woods on a sloped terrain, the result of the Chiloé Archipelago’s diverse geological formations of rolling hills, bays and estuaries. The uneven topography allows for expansive and uninterrupted views of the sea, with frequent sightings of whales and dolphins.
