Project: Corallo House
Architects: PAZ Arquitectura
Location: Santa Rosalía, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Area: 8,040 sq ft
Photographs by: Andres Asturias, courtesy of PAZ Arquitectura
Corallo House by PAZ Arquitectura
Casa Corallo, or Corralo House brings nature indoors quite literally. Even though it is located in Guatemala City, its setting is far from an urban environment. PAZ Arquitectura, a Guatemalan architecture firm, have designed it in a way to feel so entrenched in its environment that it even has trees growing through it. Alejandro Paz, the architect, didn’t want to disrupt the natural landscape of the hillside forest in the Santa Rosalía area of Guatemala City so he decided that the house would integrate some of the existing trees at the site, allowing them to interact with the living space.
From the architects: “Located on a dense hillside forest in the Santa Rosalía area of Guatemala City, Corallo House integrates the existing forest into the layout of the house. It merges nature into the architectural intervention. The design process began with the aim to preserve the existing trees, in order to have the trees interact with the living space.
The floor plan is free of columns and the changes in level adapt to the existing topography. Both facades are mostly glass in order to connect the interior to the exterior. The main structural component is exposed concrete, which shows the rustic texture of the wood formwork, allowing a dialogue between the formal element and the textures of the forest.”
