Architects: Architects Elisa Gerson
Location: Paraná, Argentina
Predominant materials: wood and masonry

The Tree House is located on an island in the Parana Delta half an hour by ferry from San Fernando. Located in a condominium of 32 large lots that promotes contact with nature from a vision of respect and minimal environmental transformation. In fact, the sector now appears as a forest with abundant vegetation and wildlife, away from the boat engine noises typical of other areas of the delta.

The house was born on a walk with the client for a remote and rugged plot where jokingly suggested making a "tree house". The joke became a project and the project was transformed into a work.  In the spirit of minimal impact and that fascinated by the overwhelming landscape with its vegetation identified the opening lines of this "tree house". It sought to create a compact and low volumetric footprint (8m x 8m in plan), use the wood and masonry as foundational materials and rethink all the services of an alternative mode and that the lot did not have any of them.

Slowly he started to define the profile of this house self-sufficient and careful dealing with the environment and the planet. The power supply was resolved through a system of solar panels, battery bank and inverter which supplies the whole house voltage 220v. Artificial lighting is made of LED lamps, significantly reducing power consumption. The heating is achieved with a wood burning fireplace and a salamander avoiding the carry gas with all its impact and used as fuel wood in the forest. The creek water is pumped, decanted into a 2 tank system reserve and serves healthcare use.

The volumetric design is worked from the premise of building compact high natural soil and associated with various elements of the uses of wood patio, walkway, pier and grill that is placed under a course that plays on the landscape. This sequence is designed in response to a dynamic of appropriation of space, multiplying the uses of dining and living out of the house. The same dynamic is that power plants and combinations of mobility spaces as needed to support comfort coming so they can sleep eleven people.

The terrace system has 3 levels and to link up with the vegetation at different heights while working as a parasol of the north face. The game tables available from the terraces creates effects of light filtered reissuing the mode with the sun filtered through the leaves of the trees.  The south side was conceived as a hermetic, heavy element held in common brick masonry. The synthesis was the ideal resource for dialogue with the context of complex shapes and unexpected light in the forest. The rigor of the original proposal was accompanied and balanced decisions to adapt the project work to the materials, proportions and order continuing the spirit of the game that existed since the beginning. Finally the composition of the windows gave views and unexpected cuts and varied forest.

The materials used were mostly of wood, brick and concrete, all expressed in their natural endings. He appealed to the constructive honesty so what is wood is wood, no costumes. The colors of the different species of wood play with forest trees and the brick is like the color of clay soils. Only the green were added to the metallic elements and violet plate for doors. Even the landscaping was done with native species from design to value the natural power of the place.

All decisions of projective doubts were cleared at the time in which the tree house began to talk and proposed her own relationship with the environment that surpasses the best speculations of the project.

The client was support and encouragement to elaborate a draft disturbing challenges, achieve unthinkable, or dream without his open-mindedness and loving accompaniment.