THE MISSING LINK OF TOYO ITO

project Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
with the collaboration of Christian de Groote, Arquitectos
photos and text Sergio Pirrone

A VILLA IN WHITE CONCRETE AND GLASS. THE COMMON SPACES ARE ROTATED AND INCLINED, WHILE THE PRIVATE SPACES LOOK TOWARD THE MOUNTAINS. WHITE O IS THE NINTH WORK OF OCHOALCUBO, THE PIONEERING RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX IN MARBELLA, CHILE. HERE TOYO ITO HAS CREATED HIS FIRST PROJECT IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Toyo Ito first met Edoardo Godoy at the Venice Biennial, and heard about the dream that had begun a few years earlier in Marbella, a town northwest of Santiago, amidst panoramic hills and golf courses. Eight Chilean architects and one landscape designer had discussed how to complete the first eight phases of the project in a harmonious way. It was an innovative idea, to buy a large lot, call it Ocho al Cubo, fill it with eight residential projects that narrate their own individual stories, while listening to the others as well. The eight houses would be sold to eight clients interested in the place and ready to tell others about the beauty of Chile, not just its marvelous nature, but also the work of man. The first phase called for eight concrete villas, 250-300 sq meters each, by eight Chilean architects, who would then pass the baton to eight international architects for the second phase, adding eight more villas, also in concrete, but larger (400 m2). Toyo Ito was to be the first, but he said “no, thanks”. But then he changed his mind. It would be his first South American project, a rare residential work. He could make a contribution to a good idea, 33 years after his White U, maybe finding the missing link, closing the circle he had opened way back then. When he reached the Ocho al Cubo site he realized that that buried horseshoe, closed in the pain of a sister who had just lost the father of her daughters, could open up to the joy of a breathtaking landscape. The lot sloped downward, looking toward the mountains to the northeast, beyond villas by architects like Sebastian Irarrazaval, Smilian Radic, Mathias Klotz and Christian De Groote. A horizontal roof and vertical members were the orthogonal constraints of an object that would rest on a natural rise. Straight line over curve, white concrete on green meadow, the contrast of a volume that neither conceals nor opens, but offers a glimpse of an inner world. That of the first works of Le Corbusier, of his pilotis under modular facades, authoritative knowledge of the light circuit of a fluid circular space, never exclusively internal, nor naively external. Seduced by contrasts, that never confine and always are open to surprises, to the discover of the other, Toyo stiffens the main facade with an asymmetrical grid that encloses the garage and the three entrance underpasses on the ground level, opening the second level to the three bedrooms that are flooded with morning light. The sinuous stone avenue plunges into the shade, the pupils have just dilated when suddenly they retreat under a sky with the form of an O. The valley is left outside, but it is still there, between earth and ramp, ramp and roof, beyond the shadow and above and under the opaque turquoise panels of the bedroom area. We are now faced by a world that also dilates and contracts, like the pupil surprised by the designs of the sun. The horizontal plane rocks around the irregular patio, an open-air interior. Caressed by the continuous glass membrane, which curves once, twice, breathing the living and dining rooms, and then hides in a reticent kitchen. Adjacent, still in a context of straight and curved lines, like the entire planimetric composition, the staircase leads down to what was supposed to be an annex for the governess, and later became a sheltered nest for the third daughter. From above, the White O resembles a ring, the missing link. While from the neighbor’s roof, atop the villa designed by Teodoro Fernandez, the lawn with the ocular swimming pool suggests that Ocho al Cubo is much more. - Caption pag. 3 Exterior view of the ringshaped garden that encloses the open courtyard. In the foreground, the suspended ramp leading to the nighttime zone with the three bedrooms. In the background, the dining and living areas. - Caption pag. 5 On the facing page: the circular living area opens to the glass oval and the two large windows that respectively face the swimming pool and the northwest facade. The Sendai bookcase and the wooden Ripples seat designed by Toyo Ito are part of the Horm catalogue. Sofa by Zanotta, glass table by Fiam. The overall planimetric of the project. Exterior view of the facade on the garden and the swimming pool. The white volume opens outward, alternating closed portions and gaps. Detail of the southwest corner with the large window of the living area. The external stairs lead to the panoramic roof deck. The streetfront is marked by vertical structural partitions that frame the garage, the entrance passages and the bedrooms organized on the second level.