If you love all things concrete, you’ll find plenty to love about Atelier Matias Mosquera’s Shire. The extraordinary home blends into its lush surrounding landscape and offers self-sufficiency in electricity, water and food.
Clearly showing its Tolkien inspiration, the Shire is located in a rural spot in Buenos Aires and is constructed primarily from concrete. This is softened somewhat by all the greenery around and above it, and also provides additional insulation from the heat and cold. The wooden slats also help to shade its generous glazing.
The interior design focuses on celebrating rough, bare concrete alongside wood, including a bathroom with a stone-like bathtub. Obviously, this style won’t be to everyone’s taste and will be a love-it-or-hate-it situation, but it probably suits the owners. The house measures 200 square meters (about 2,150 square feet) and includes three bedrooms, a living room, a library area, a kitchen, and the aforementioned bathroom.
The landscaping around the house is quite detailed and includes a swimming pool and paths that will allow the owners to walk on top of the structure and take in the views of the surroundings.
Atelier Matias Camira
Shire was initially designed to allow its owner to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in Buenos Aires and live closer to nature.
To ensure it can operate off-grid, the home gets all its power from solar panels connected to a battery array, which keeps the lights on even when there’s no sunlight. It also has a rainwater collection system connected to water tanks and a vegetable garden to enable sustainable food production – although we reckon even the greenest-fingered owner will need to visit the local shop.
“The idea is to produce goods, consume them as needed and then recycle them, instead of buying them and throwing them away,” explains Atelier Matias Mosquera. “There will be no waste because the system will be self-sufficient. It produces its own electricity, heating, water and, above all, food.”
Atelier Matias Camira
The idea of embedding homes into the landscape has been popular in residential design lately, and Shire is following suit with similar projects such as the Avocado House and NCaved.
Source: Atelier Matias Camira