Designed by Chilean architect Gonzalo Mardones Viviani to serve as family home to compatriot and former tennis star Marcelo Rios, House RP features a futuristic-looking design that would look right at home in George Lucas sci-fi movie THX 1138.
Like the Caterpillar House we recently covered, House RP is located in the foothills of Santiago de Chile, and affords stunning views of the local area. A green roof was originally planned for the home, but the client's feelings about grass – at Wimbledon in 1997 he said that grass is "for cows and soccer" – resulted in synthetic grass being adopted instead.
The faux-green roof still serves a practical purpose, though, as it was placed on rafters, creating an air bed that protects the structure from direct sunlight and helps to maintain a lower temperature inside.
To lend the home its brilliant white appearance, Gonzalo Mardones Viviani added titanium dioxide to the concrete during construction. Intriguingly, one of the potential added bonuses of this approach could be an exterior finish that helps reduce air pollution. While the architects avoid directly making this claim, they do point out that recent nanotechnology studies have indicated that such effects are possible.
Indeed, as we reported back in 2010, researchers have for some time been researching the effects of adding titanium dioxide to concrete and its potential for creating for self-cleaning walls, garden furniture, and walls.
House RP was completed earlier this year.
Source: Gonzalo Mardones Viviani via Arch Daily
