​​Like a structure carved from a quarry, Amber Core House looks as if it was hewn from the bedrock. Its stone-like volume collects and protects every living space of the home.

 

This petrous solid is punctuated by an interplay of hollow spaces, cradling a main void that houses the home’s core. With a very visible texture, resembling that of a quarry wall, the villa’s façade transmits the sensation of raw nature beneath the sky.

 

The architectural concept is based on this idea of a hollowed-out rock. The voids carved into its interior are as prominent as the solid that contains them. There is a fundamental contrast between the density of solid stone and the lightness of the space in the voids that pierce it.

 

The house is composed of nested volumes, each enclosing the other—from the innermost core to the outer structural envelope. It contains three main defined spaces. From inside out, they are a central core, a large void or atrium that creates a perimeter corridor around the core, and finally the wide, inhabited and hollow outer skin that contains the different private or social areas of the house across its various levels. This relationship of solids and voids has the capacity to articulate the different degrees of privacy within the home.

 

The central core is intimate; it is the place for family gathering. It is the heart of the house, a welcoming space. It is light-weight and elevated, hanging inside the atrium. Suspended from a light truss structure that leans on the outer massive skin, it hangs with a minimal structural presence. This levitating element distributes the circulation of the house vertically and horizontally.

 

The central core has soft and warm materials. Translucent and covered by a very light lattice, it looks like a large lantern, illuminating the perimeter void gently. The light beneath is perceived as a soft glow, reinforcing the sensation of lightness and the condition of being a volume suspended in space. From the outside it is perceived like a forest of screens that ensure privacy while filtering light.

 

The atrium in which this central core hangs is open to the sky, indirectly lighting the house. This secluded space provides air circulation, freshness and visual spaciousness. The atrium is a place neither fully lit nor in shadow. It is a transitional zone filled with penumbra.

 

The inhabited wall hosts the villa’s public socializing areas on the ground floor. On upper floors, there are the private areas, which connect to the central core via walkways that span the void. This inhabited wall is hollowed out in a small scale, horizontally, creating terraces that open up the space to the exterior in an intimate, protected way. Voids are carved vertically too, creating light wells to connect terraces and open up views.

 

In the basement, a pool surrounded by the materiality of this quarry-like skin allows for the experience of being immersed in this hollow world, which during the day allows natural light to illuminate the materials’ quality and texture.