HOUSE A IN A SLOPE is located in a forest clearing on a steep slope facing Lake Ranco, in southern Chile. The project draws from the archetype of the “A-frame” cabin, with two fully glazed facades that open the house to the nearby forest to the south and to Lake Ranco with the distant Choshuenco volcano to the north. To preserve the presence of the slope, the interior space adapts entirely to it. The result is a central stairway of seemingly disproportionate scale that transcends its practical role to become a flexible, playful, almost topographic space—an echo of Paul Virilio’s “oblique function.” As Virilio wrote, “obliquity speaks of instability, links spaces dynamically, and forces the user to rethink things, to re-inhabit the space, to live on the edge… and to tread carefully.” Above this inclined interior, a large rhombus-shaped skylight opens at the ridge, letting in the color of the sky and the forest’s shifting light and shadows.

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Detached from the main volume, a cylindrical structure contains the wet areas. Here, all services and bathrooms are concentrated, also open to the sky, forming a compact, elemental core.

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The entire structure, made of laminated pine, was prefabricated with CNC machining 280 km from the site and assembled in just two weeks. The exterior, however, was not fast: it was fully handcrafted on site with shingles of Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides). This technique—tejueleo—has shaped the technological and cultural landscape of southern Chile since the 17th century. Originating during the early exploitation of Alerce forests in regions like Chiloé, Puerto Montt, Osorno, and Valdivia, tejueleo became a hallmark of rural architecture—resilient, functional, and deeply tied to place. Today, with Alerce a protected species, its legacy survives through an Indigenous community deep in the forests near Bahía Mansa, which, through conservation agreements, works only with trees that have fallen naturally within protected areas—sustaining a craft that speaks of ecology and technology.