Dachas is a housing complex located in Bariloche in a sloped site facing the Nahuel Huapi lake. The word Dachas comes from Russian, meaning country home, log cabin, small rest area in a rural setting. The site is limited in its upper and lower sides by streets hidden in a dense woodland area, a peculiar urban situation, in which the building plays a key role in opening the area and introducing the landscape into the site. In the middle of the woods, two inclined irregular objects, molded by the southern winds, mix with the existing pine trees of the site, framing the impressive lake backdrop and hinting the access into the complex.
A street level parking area receives the cars. In its extremes, two wooden bridges grant access to the upper units, and 2 two pebble paths, following the site´s slope, do so to the lower ones. A gabion retaining wall holds the soil, limiting the arriving area from the private entrances to each unit.
The volumes´ orientation responds to the main view, breathtaking lake, and northern sunlight. Its progressive change in height responds to the maximum height permitted, as well as the gradual sloping of the site, both determining the final shape of the building.
The central space is made up of a mixed use room in the upper level, and a viewing terrace that takes over the site. The cabins are covered in wood. They are basically two black frames, with white interiors, facing the Nahuel Huapi lake on one side, and the wood´s canopy on the other.
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