MAPA Architects has designed a 115 sqm prefabricated house to be nestled into a picturesque Uruguayan olive grove surrounded by rolling hills. Made to maximize new landscape experiences, Retreat in Finca Aguy was prefab-born in a factory near Montevideo and transported 200km to its final destination in Pueblo Edén.
To build in far away territories from the surroundings in which we usually live is a great challenge. Remoteness not as a limit but as a possibility, as a value, as a generator of fields and conditions. Remote landscapes confronts us with the awareness of immenseness. It puts us in our role in reality.
In landscapes of high natural value, it is fundamental to respect their original condition and so it is essential a reversibility condition. Prefabrication allows us to work with industrialized materials that enable high-precision processes. Thus amortizing the impact of construction on the ground, minimizing waste, staff in situ and displacement: a perfect combination of nature and industry.
Houses do not move. They are made of heavy materials, put together with mortar, concrete must be used.These prejudices are hard to break, as the immobility of constructions. On the other hand, prefab houses are produced in a controlled environment and carefully made. They are born in a factory and taken to its final destination. Houses do not move, however…
The result is a building that appears more permanent than many other small prefabricated structures. The architects describe it as a “perfect combination of industry and landscape”.
images by Leonardo Finotti and MAPA Architects