ONA Wraps a Mendoza Foothills House in Curved Board-Formed Concrete and Turns It Inward to a Walled Lawn

Chacras de Coria sits on the edge of Greater Mendoza. It is a semi-urban landscape of low houses, vineyards and long lines of poplars. In this setting, ONA - Oficina Nómada de Arquitectura, led by Nicolás Guerra, has completed CCE House, a 170 m² single-storey home. It does very little toward the street. What it does show is a board-formed concrete wall that curves at its ends, a grey metal gate, and the poplars rising behind.

The interest lies in the relationship between that wall and the light, low house behind it. The concrete perimeter is the public face of the project. Behind it sits an L-shaped white volume with full-height sliding glass, laid out around a lawn and opened to the north. We read the scheme as a negotiation between containment and exposure. The architects use one heavy material to hold the edge and let almost everything else be glass, timber and white render.

A Wall Facing the Street

Seen from the street, the house is almost entirely wall. The concrete was cast against timber boards, which leave a horizontal grain across the surface. That grain picks up the dry Mendoza light and the vertical rhythm of the poplars behind it. The grey gate is deliberately plain, so the concrete reads as the only real gesture.

The curves matter more than they first appear to. A straight perimeter wall would read as a fence or a barrier. Bending the wall's ends turns it into an object with a beginning and an end, and it starts to look as though it belongs among the trees. At twilight, a thin strip of light runs along the base of the curve and lifts the wall off the ground. It is a small detail, and it keeps the street side from feeling defensive.

Entering Through the Curve

A paved stepping-stone path follows the curved wall toward the door. You arrive through a recess between two rounded concrete volumes. A timber-lined reveal and the thin white roof edge above it signal that the house has begun. The sequence is short but carefully compressed, so the opening up that follows feels earned.

In the entry court, the white pergola beams sit against the board-marked concrete. This sets up a pairing that runs through the whole project: thin, light and white framing against thick, textured and grey mass. Neither material tries to imitate the other.

The Garden Side: A White Box Opened North

On the lawn side, the house becomes something else entirely. It is a low white wing with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass, sheer curtains, and a single chimney breaking the roofline. The openings face north, which in Mendoza means winter sun reaches deep into the rooms. Because the perimeter wall already guarantees privacy, the glazing can be generous.

This is the real argument of the plan. The concrete wall does the work of privacy, so the inner facade does not have to. At dusk the living room glows across the yard and the poplars stand bare to one side. The house looks less like a fortress than a lantern placed inside a walled garden.

Living Between Glass and Concrete

The interior palette is restrained: pale timber floors, white curtains, and one board-formed concrete wall carried inside as a backdrop to the living room. A butterfly chair, a tripod lamp, a guitar and a few plants are enough to furnish the space. The rooms do not compete with the view they frame.

The living area and kitchen run together, and sliding glass walls on more than one side let the room read as a covered piece of the patio. At night the effect reverses. The curved courtyard walls become the outer limit of the room, catching the lamplight and closing the space in again.

Curved Walls as Light Instruments

The covered terrace has a slatted pergola, a round concrete column, and white built-in cabinets. Here the project shows its most careful daylight work. The pergola beams cast stripes across the curved concrete, and because the wall bends, those stripes stretch and tighten through the day. On a flat wall the same shadow would simply march across.

Elsewhere, the curved walls form small courts against the glazing. One is a narrow gravel strip with olive trees beyond; another holds dry leaves at dusk. These leftover spaces are some of the best in the house. They give each sliding door its own enclosed view, so the glass never looks straight into a neighbour.

Private Rooms, Small Moments

The bedroom repeats the same move at a smaller scale. Gathered white curtains frame a sliding door, and through it you see a curved concrete patio wall close by. The view is intimate rather than panoramic, which suits a room meant for rest.

The bathroom is modest: a timber vanity, a wall of square handmade tiles, and a patch of low sun falling across both. It is a reminder that the project's quality depends on careful choices at every scale, not only on the big concrete gesture at the street.

Plans and Drawings

The plan confirms the L-shaped organisation. Living, kitchen and bedrooms wrap two sides of a large tree-dotted lawn, and a two-car carport with a slatted cover sits within the walled plot. The axonometrics make the strategy easy to read: the house claims the edges, and the centre of the site is given over to open ground.

The sections show how light the construction is behind the perimeter. A thin flat roof, sloped in part, rests on steel columns, with glazed walls between them and concrete footings below. The contrast with the heavy board-formed wall in the photographs is intentional. Mass is used where it protects; lightness is used where it opens.

Why This Project Matters

Houses in semi-rural suburbs often face a familiar dilemma: they either expose themselves to the road or barricade themselves behind blank fences. CCE House offers a clear third option. It spends its architectural effort on a single crafted perimeter, and the curves and board texture of that perimeter make enclosure feel generous rather than hostile.

It is also a useful lesson in economy. At 170 m², the house does not try to impress through size. It works by dividing tasks clearly. The concrete handles privacy and identity, the north-facing glass handles light and climate, and the lawn holds the life of the house. For anyone designing on the edge of a city, among vineyards and poplars, that clarity is worth studying.

CCE House by ONA - Oficina Nómada de Arquitectura (lead architect Nicolás Guerra; team Franco Sandes, Juliana Catalani, Diana Barrera), Chacras de Coria, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina. Area: 170 m². Year: 2026. Photography by Luis Abba.

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