- Project: El Abrazo House
- Architect: Mateo Gagliardo
- Location: Argentina, El Chirigüe Island, Lechiguana Stream, Delta del Río Paraná, Entre Ríos
- Year: 2022
- Area: 154 m2
- Photography: Ramiro Sosa
Architecture in Harmony with the Wetlands
Set within the vast wetlands of Argentina’s Paraná River Delta, El Abrazo House by Mateo Gagliardo embodies an architecture of coexistence. More than a home, it is a thoughtful response to an ever-changing aquatic landscape, where rising water levels, isolation, and self-sufficiency define everyday life.
Anchored on El Chirigüe Island along the Lechiguana Stream, the house blends with the terrain through an earthen berm that rises to meet the elevated structure—an architectural embrace between land, water, and sky.
Concept & Design Strategy
The design emerged from three defining forces of the Delta: flooding, landscape, and autonomy. To inhabit such a dynamic ecosystem, Gagliardo conceived an architecture that adapts rather than resists.
Two principal axes organize the project:
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The Y-axis establishes a visual and spatial connection between the river, the dock, the gallery, and a mature tree at the rear of the site—linking architecture to its natural anchors.
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The X-axis, running through the interior, aligns the gallery as the home’s connective heart, weaving together bedrooms and communal spaces while maintaining constant dialogue with the outdoors.
The result is a house that dissolves boundaries between inside and outside, allowing the landscape to shape daily life.
Elevation & Integration
To counter seasonal flooding, El Abrazo rests above the ground plane on an elevated platform. The earthen berm acts as both access route and topographic gesture, softening the transition between terrain and structure.
This approach ensures accessibility during high-water periods while preserving the site’s natural hydrology. The slender structure appears to float among the tree canopies—a minimal footprint yielding maximum sensitivity.
Spatial Organization & Materiality
Spatially, the home balances intimacy and openness.
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The private zone—comprising bedrooms, bathrooms, storage, and mechanical rooms—is constructed using Steel Frame technology with exterior Minionda Cincalum cladding and interior phenolic panels, ensuring durability against humidity.
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The social area is conceived as a transparent pavilion, projecting outward in a cantilever that immerses occupants in the surrounding foliage. Large panes of glass and the open gallery merge interior and exterior, turning gatherings into extensions of the landscape.
Natural ventilation, filtered daylight, and lightweight materials create an atmosphere of warmth and adaptability, mirroring the ecosystem’s organic rhythm.
Sustainability & Self-Sufficiency
In this remote context, El Abrazo House operates completely off-grid, embodying principles of sustainable independence:
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Solar Power: Photovoltaic panels generate all electrical energy.
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Water Cycle: River water undergoes sedimentation and chlorination for domestic use.
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Waste Management: A biodigester processes sewage, converting waste into harmless organic matter.
These systems ensure the home’s autonomy and ecological balance, aligning with the architect’s philosophy that architecture should coexist with nature, not dominate it.
Material Poetics & Sense of Place
Gagliardo’s design embraces essentialism and restraint.
Industrial yet tactile materials—corrugated metal, timber, phenolic boards—echo the working structures of the Delta while expressing refined simplicity. The transparency of the social core contrasts with the solidity of the private wing, creating a dynamic interplay of exposure and shelter.
At dusk, when golden light reflects off the wetlands, the house glows like a beacon—a quiet dialogue between human craft and natural resilience.
El Abrazo House by Mateo Gagliardo stands as a model of contextual, resilient architecture.
It is an elevated shelter, a bridge between land and water, and a manifesto for sustainable living in delicate ecosystems. By integrating topography, structure, and autonomy, the project exemplifies how thoughtful design can translate environmental challenges into architectural beauty.
This is architecture of empathy—embracing its context, its inhabitants, and the rhythms of the Delta.
