The concept · Menetúe Ridge

01 · Privacy

Hidden by the hill.

The site does most of the work. A slope of about 30 per cent facing the volcanoes, a road climbing it, five terraces on each side. The design finishes what the hill starts.

Straight down onto the hillside: the road along the contour, nine planted roofs in the forest, four above the road and five below

Five terraces, fifteen to twenty metres apart: Each lot is 58 metres up the slope. On a 30 per cent hill that is fifteen to twenty metres of height. Each house sits at the top of its lot, dug into the hill. Its roof is far below the floor of the house above. You look over a planted roof, never into a window.
Zigzag up the hill: One house sits near the road, the next one further out. No house stands right above another. Straight below your glass there is forest.
The roof is the fifth façade: Planted with sedum and native grasses. It is the only part of your house the neighbour above ever sees. Nothing on it. No equipment, no chimneys, no terrace.
Along the contour, not the road: About 30 metres of house in 86 metres of lot. More than twenty-five metres of forest at each end. The only neighbour at your level is across the road, sixty metres away. The two houses turn ten degrees away from each other. Both look at Villarrica. Neither sees the other.
The road gives nothing away: The road passes the end of each house, never its front. The garage is dug into the hill under the planted roof. From the road you see a concrete lintel, a corten door and grass. Nothing else.
No fence, no gate, no guardhouse: The slope and the forest do what a wall would do, without telling anyone that something is being protected.
Nine houses, nine owners, one road: That is the whole community. There will not be more.

You can leave the curtains at home.

02 · Simplicity

One floor. One long room.

One single-storey bar along the contour. It is the shape that is easiest to build well, easiest to live in, and easiest to hide in a slope.

The house from the slope below: one long bar, glass along the valley side, planted roof continuing the hill

The plan: Twenty-five to thirty-five metres long, eleven deep, 280 to 380 m². Garage and entry at the road end. Living room and kitchen in the middle. Three to four bedrooms at the far end, off a corridor on the hill side.
Glass towards the valley: Full-height glass along the whole valley side. A deep roof overhang keeps it dry through two metres of rain a year.
Terrace, pool, horizon: The terrace steps out of the living room over the slope. The pool sits in it. Its far edge lines up with the horizon.
Light from the north: The volcanoes are south, so the glass faces the shade. A band of high windows over the concrete wall brings daylight in from behind. The hill lights the room.
Few materials, no maintenance: Concrete floor with underfloor heating, timber ceiling, concrete wall, corten fireplace. Nothing on the walls, nothing to repaint.
One house, nine times: One house type, adapted to each lot. Not nine designs. One design, done nine times, well.

Nothing to decide, nothing to fix.

03 · Nature

Built from what is already here.

The colours are the hillside in afternoon light. The systems are what a house needs at 800 metres, with two metres of rain a year and no grid nearby.

Arriving from the road: a concrete lintel with a planted roof, a corten door, dry-stone walls, wet gravel, forest. The house itself is not visible.

Materials: Timber that turns silver, concrete cast against boards, stone laid dry, planted roofs, grasses. Corten is the only strong colour. Nothing painted, nothing polished.
The trees stay: The native forest is the privacy plan. Earthworks stay within the footprint of the house and the drive.
Water: Roofs collect rain into tanks. No lawn, no irrigation. Grasses around the terraces.
Energy: Solar panels on the roof, a heat pump, a concrete floor that stores heat. Starlink for internet.
Winter: The site sits at 800 metres and sees snow. Roofs have a fall and strong drainage. The overhang keeps snow off the glass.
Volcano: Villarrica is active and monitored around the clock by SERNAGEOMIN. The site is 22 km from the crater, outside the hazard zones. That is also why the view is so good.

A house that ages the way the hill does.

The house in numbers

What you get.

Lot: 5 000 m² · 58 m up the slope × 86 m along the contour · 15–20 m of height per terrace
House: Single storey · 25–35 × 11 m · 280–380 m² · at the top of the lot
Rooms: 3–4 bedrooms · living and kitchen in one long room · study
Garage: At the road end of the house, dug into the hill under the planted roof · the drive arrives from above · mirrored plan for the two sides of the road
Terrace & pool: Terrace projecting from the living room, pool set into it, infinity edge on the valley side
Roof: Planted · flat with a fall · deep overhang on the valley side
Structure: Board-formed concrete and timber
Glazing: Full height along the valley side · clerestory band on the hill side
Heating: Underfloor in the concrete slab · heat pump
Power & water: Photovoltaics · rainwater harvesting · well or community supply (to be confirmed)
Internet: Starlink
Delivery: Lot + house design + fixed-price construction contract with the builder

The architecture is being developed from this brief. Drawings will replace the concept views on this site as they arrive.

Three things, done properly.

Hidden by the hill.

One floor. One long room.

Built from what is already here.

What you get.

See the lots.