Casa Tizón, on Lake Llanquihue
Ensenada, ChileRÜM
On the southern shore of Lake Llanquihue, under the Osorno volcano, a refuge for artists sits low in the pasture. Its walls are cypress charred by controlled fire. Its floors are basalt quarried from old lava. Nothing inside it competes with the horizon.
These pages walk through it the way a visitor would: from the territory to the threshold, through the great hall and the bedroom, and into the workshop where the paintings are made.
Lava, pasture and weather: the ground from which the refuge rises.
Snow and steam rise over the lake from Osorno, the volcanic presence that sets the refuge's horizon. Below it, horses graze under a heavy sky. The life of the land is slow here, and the house was drawn to sit inside that quiet rather than in front of it.
A dark vessel looking toward the volcano.
From above, the burnt-cypress house settles into the slope in three long volumes: bedrooms on one side, the workshop on the other, and the great hall between them. In front of the hall a narrow pool returns the mountain to the house, so the volcano is seen twice: once on the horizon, once at your feet.
Three volumes, one way in. The great hall sits in the middle.
Concept plan, not to scale. The dotted line is the way through the house.
Every room meets at the vestibule. The great hall and the workshop turn to the volcano.
Diagram, indicative.
The dark threshold distributes the house. The great hall, the bedrooms and the workshop all branch from this quiet core.
A table of solid cypress, two low lamps, and a doorway that frames the pasture.
Double height, mirror light.
The social heart of the refuge is a tall volume of volcanic stone and yakisugi cypress that opens toward the landscape. The kitchen belongs to the same room and speaks the same language: a stone island, charred cypress, and a long window to the mountain.
Yakisugi, shou sugi ban
The cypress surface is charred with controlled fire, the loose carbon is brushed away, and the wood is sealed with natural oil. The char protects it against moisture, insects and fire.
Burned so it will not burn.
Volcanic basalt, Ñuble, Chile
Quarried from volcanic beds in Recinto. Solidified lava is cut into slabs, and its porous, cratered texture carries the mark of southern Chilean volcanism.
The great hall rises to a double height between the two lower wings.
Cross section looking toward the volcano. Concept, not to scale.
From fire to finish, outside in.
Indicative assembly.
A quieter wing of the house.
Wood, shadow and soft light, and a slow approach into the resting chamber. A single pendant over the night table, a painting leaning on the wall, and from the bed, a glass wall that gives the volcano back to the room.
Canvas, pigment and tools, with the territory framed through the glass.
Paint tubes, jars and wet pigment cover the worktable. These are the tools that turn lava, gold and cypress into canvas.
Inside, charred wood; outside, open landscape. The window is the one picture in the room that never changes hands.
Charred wood inside, open landscape outside.
Fresh paint. Thick black and gold, still catching the light on the atelier canvas.
Artists Refuge
Casa Tizón. Ensenada, Lake Llanquihue, Chile.
An editorial presentation by RÜM.
