ZIM arquitextura Raises a Brick House on a Concrete Base Among the Pines of Costa Esmeralda

Costa Esmeralda is a private development on the dunes of the Buenos Aires coast, about 390 km from the capital. Sand, wind and stands of pine define the place, so building there means choosing a stance toward unstable ground. FB House, completed in 2013 by ZIM arquitextura, takes a clear one: it lifts a compact brick volume onto a concrete base, caps it with a tilted timber roof, and lets a band of clerestory glazing do much of the work of bringing light inside.

What interests us is how few moves the house relies on. There is red brick, there is concrete where the building meets the slope, and there is timber in the roof, the ceilings and the deck. The drawings show two overlapping roof planes over a tapering lot and a section that follows the fall of the dune instead of flattening it. The result is a house that reads as solid and grounded from outside, while the interior opens up under the rafters and out onto a covered porch among the trees.

Seen from the Dune Grass

From across the tall dune grasses, the house appears as a single brick mass with a lighter glazed band riding on top. The pines behind give it a dark backdrop, which makes the red brick read warmer and the clerestory read as a separate, almost floating element.

The wooden entry deck visible at dusk is a modest gesture, but it matters. It gives you a defined arrival point on terrain that otherwise offers none, and it tells you early that timber will mark the places where people actually stand and move.

A Brick Volume on a Concrete Base

The concrete base is the project's practical answer to the dune. Rather than setting brick directly into shifting sand, the architects give the masonry a firm plinth, and the brick volume sits on it with its weight made legible. It is a familiar strategy, but here the contrast in materials is crisp enough that you can read the construction logic from a single photograph.

The drone view helps explain the roof. Two planes, one dark and one white, overlap in plan, which matches the site drawings. From the ground you mostly see the tilt and the clerestory beneath it; from above you see that the roof is really two pieces negotiating the shape of the lot.

Walls, Doors and Pine Needles

The side elevations are where the brick does its quietest work. Long stretches of wall are punctured by single glazed doors, with the sloped timber roof edge running overhead. Openings are few and deliberate, which keeps the house private from neighboring lots while still letting each side connect to the ground.

These photographs also show how close the trees come. Pine trunks stand right against the deck and branches frame the walls, and the ground is a bed of needles rather than a lawn. The house was clearly placed to keep the existing stand intact, and it benefits from the shade and enclosure that come with it.

The Hearth at the Center

Inside, the brick follows you in. The fireplace is recessed into a brick-lined wall and paired with a concrete bench, so the two exterior materials meet again in the room people gather in most. That continuity is the strongest interior decision in the project: nothing is applied as finish that is not already part of the building's construction.

Daylight comes from two directions here, through the sliding glass doors at eye level and through the clerestory above. On a wooded site where low light can be scarce, that second source keeps the living area bright without forcing large openings in the brick walls.

Timber Rafters over the Table

The pitched timber ceiling with exposed rafters gives the dining and living space its height and character. Wicker pendants hang low over the table, bringing the light source down to a domestic scale under a roof that would otherwise feel tall for a house of this size.

Sunlight falling across the tile floor shows the clerestory paying off over the course of the day. The sliding doors open the room straight onto the pines, so the boundary between dining room and woods is a pane of glass and a threshold, not a wall.

A Porch for Outdoor Living

The covered timber deck may be the best room in the house. A built-in bench, a brick grill, heavy beams and a plank ceiling make it a fully furnished outdoor space rather than a leftover balcony. In Argentina, where the grill is often central to social life, giving it a permanent brick place under the roof is a smart reading of how the house will actually be used.

Because the deck is flanked by sliding doors and open to the dining room, interior and exterior read as one continuous sequence. The pine trunks standing at its edges act as a kind of informal colonnade.

A Lantern in the Pines at Night

After dark the house reverses its daytime character. The brick fades into the pines, and the timber-framed clerestory glows as a continuous strip under the cantilevered roof. What was a source of light by day becomes a source of light by night, and the building reads more as a lantern than a mass.

It is a reminder that the clerestory is not only a daylighting device. It is also how the house announces itself on the dune, quietly, without large expanses of glass facing the street.

Plans and Drawings

The site plans show the two overlapping rectangular roofs placed on a tapering lot, with contour lines and tree canopies marked around them. The axonometric of the terrain makes the slope legible as a stack of layers, which helps explain why the base and section matter so much in this project.

The plans split the program clearly. The ground floor is reduced to a small service block and covered parking for two cars beneath the large roof. The upper floor holds the house itself: bedrooms and bathrooms on one side, living, dining, kitchen and the covered terrace on the other. Raising the living spaces gives them the light and outlook the dune site can offer.

The elevations emphasize the brick volume, the sloped roof behind it and the chimney rising as a distinct vertical element. Square window openings and standing figures for scale show how restrained the facades are.

The sections are the most revealing drawings. One shows the house on concrete footings with a figure on the covered porch; another shows it stepping down the slope with a lower level and a brick column; a third places dining tables both in the porch and inside, confirming that the deck was planned as an extension of the main room.

Why This Project Matters

Coastal developments often produce houses that ignore their ground, either by flattening the dune or by floating glass boxes above it. FB House takes a more grounded path. It accepts the slope in section, keeps the pines, and builds from a small set of materials that each have a clear job: concrete to meet the sand, brick to enclose, timber to roof and to make places to sit.

For designers working on modest residential projects, the lesson is about economy of means. A clerestory, a well-placed deck and a fireplace set into the same brick as the walls do more for the experience of this house than any added feature could. ZIM arquitextura shows that a coherent material logic, applied consistently from base to roof, can give a small house on difficult ground a strong and lasting identity.

FB House by ZIM arquitextura. Location: Costa Esmeralda, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Year: 2013. Photographs by Jeremias Thomas.

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