cristian nanzer cuts skylights into this 'casa cosmos' for a triangulated view of the stars

a home to view the woodlands below and sky above

Architect Cristián Nanzer completes a home, named Casa Cosmos by its owners, along the foothills of the Punilla Valley in Córdoba, Argentina, at the edge of a protected natural reserve. The site slopes east to west and falls sharply toward a woodland to the south.

From a single point on the plot, the concrete house establishes its geometry in response to three distant landmarks. To the south, the reserve extends toward Las Gemelas hills. To the northeast rises Mount Uritorco. To the west, El Cajón Dam reflects the sky. This triangulated reading of the landscape gives the project its plan and its spatial logic.

images © Gonzalo Viramonte

Cristián Nanzer’s spiraling floor plan

Designing Casa Cosmos, architect Cristián Nanzer organizes a triangular matrix that distributes rooms centrifugally around a central social space. Meanwhile, the kitchen and dining area connect directly to this core to form a continuous domestic field. An en suite bedroom and a studio branch outward, shaped by thick walls that temper light, sound, and heat.

At the center, a triangular skylight introduces diffuse daylight from above. Its geometry mirrors the plan while functioning as a quiet chronometer. As the sun shifts, light traces the interior surfaces, marking the hours across concrete planes and floor surfaces. Time becomes legible through subtle tonal changes rather than through applied devices.

Casa Cosmos is organized around a triangular plan that frames three distinct landscape views

board-formed concrete shapes cavernous interiors

Through its interior atmosphere, Cristián Nanzer’s Casa Cosmos recalls a hollowed promontory. Three deep galleries carve into the polyhedral volume, lending shaded exterior rooms that extend the interior outward. Each opening expresses a thickness and creates a measured transition between enclosure and horizon.

Expanded metal sliding shutters, substantial in scale, adjust luminosity and airflow while reinforcing a sense of protection. When drawn across the openings, they filter the intense regional light into a fine grain. When retracted, the house aligns directly with the distant topography.

the central skylight tracks the passage of time through shifting daylight

The slope of the terrain is absorbed into a plinth that establishes a new horizontal datum. Within this base are an independent residential unit, technical areas, and storage spaces. The plinth also mediates between the steep descent toward the reserve and the elevated main floor, which allows the main rooms to gain height and view. Rammed stone walls, forty centimeters thick, retain the earth and consolidate the ground plane. Above, board-formed exposed concrete defines the main level.

In this region, light shapes architecture as decisively as structure. Casa Cosmos receives it from above and across its three primary orientations, registering chromatic shifts throughout the day and across seasons. Surfaces respond with muted tonal variations that alter the perception of depth and proportion.

deep galleries create shaded exterior rooms at each main opening