the house over the brook - amancio williams, 1943

8/9/2019 The House Over the Brook - Amancio Williams, 1943

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PROJECTS0 domus Sri Lanka


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PROJECTSdomus Sri Lanka

We publish this extraordinary work of architecture,designed in 1943 by the Argentinian master for hismusician father. The great protagonist of the South

American modern movement managed with this buildingto express spatial, technical and formal quality, makingit certainly one of the most significant achievementsof its time

Text Daniel Tiozzo

THE HOUSE OVER THE BROOK, MAR DEL PLATA Amancio Williams


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“The true architect considers the degenerateperiod in which art consisted in the imitation

of earlier works to be a thing of the past.

Here instead begins the period in whichthe new has to be created, where creationcan count on magnificent means of self-

expression.” This is how Amancio Williamsdefined the meaning of his profession and the

leitmotiv of his projects. Throughout a longcareer, which won him numerous honours,

Williams (who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1913 and died there in 1989)undertook the design of numerous projects,

but built only a few.His most important built work is the House

over the Brook, designed for his composerfather. It includes a small service pavilion

nearby to accommodate household servants.Both buildings, situated in a park and

not far apart, were designed in 1943.So one might reasonably have expected

them to be compositionally and figurativelysimilar. Instead, the two designs differ

enormously. Close examination reveals therichness of their composition, a quality that

distinguishes all of Williams’ architecture.His approach belongs to a rare and unusual

sphere of architectural design, founded oncontinual contrasts and an antithetical logic

Pages 70-71: the Houseover the Brook. This page,top: in the ground planof the site inside PereyraIraola Park can be noted,left, the House over theBrook and its annexes,and right, the House in

the Park, designed in the same period by Williamsfor his brother but never

built; below: the servicepavilion’s inner court hasa centrally positionedwashtub. In line with LeCorbusier’s impressionsof the Charterhouse ofEma, the courtyard is ameditative space, with

the washtub representingthe well


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D a / F r o m A m

a n c i o W i l l i a m s , a c u r a d i / e d i t e d b y J o r g e S i l v e t t i , H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y G r a d u a t e S c h o o

l o f D e s i g n ,

R i z z o l i ,

N e w

Y o r k 1 9 8 7


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Opposite page: entrancearea of the House overthe Brook. For a refinedlook, Williams mixed theconcrete for the walls withlocal pebbles, furthering theaesthetic relationship withthe natural surroundings.

This page, from topright: plans of the roof,first floor and entry level

The House on the Brook inMar del Plata (Argentina) wasdesigned by Amancio Williamsin 1943, in collaborationwith Delfina Gálvez deWilliams, and built between1943 and 1945. Todayunfortunately the work is in

Photo centre: the bridge structure brings out the sculptural character ofthe reinforced concrete.Supported by verticalpartitions, the flat slabfloor of the house sits onthe tangent of the curved

element, giving static andformal distinction to thetwo parts

a woeful state of disrepairand totally abandoned. Mostof Williams’ work documentsare preserved in the AmancioWilliams Archive, BuenosAires, managed by his sonClaudio.www.amanciowilliams.com


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Williams made hundredsof drawings for thedesign of the House overthe Brook and directedits construction inperson, so as to defineall details meticulously.In fact, the built version

differs from his design bya mere 0.5 cm

Above: cross-sectionof the living quarters.Below: cross-section of theground-level attachment

Opposite page, above: view of one of the two side entrances. Below:longitudinal section.The house has very preciseproportions – in plan andin section it is formedof two paired golden

rectangles. The curvatureof the bridge’s arch mirrorsthe brook’s sloping banks

and the lightness of the project as a whole,despite the use of bare concrete. Williams,

who analysed concrete both chemically andby hammer tests, loved the material for being

able to express his free-standing forms. Theyare pure forms that he did not hesitate to

enrich with relevant details in plain sight,yet in no way did they prevent the house

from being perceived in its entirety as apure volume. The detail is not decoration,

but rather the demonstration of perfect andinnovative technique.

The interior of the house responds to thesame logic. Its furniture and finishes are

carefully conceived, but deliberately designedto not outshine the master plan. The bridge-

structure is developed symmetrically to theaxis of the stream, whereas the plan of the

house is developed in the opposite direction.The elementary plan is none other than atypological reinterpretation of the so-calledchorizo house, deeply rooted in the historyand culture of the pampas. Here again,

antithetical elements contrast with oneanother: advanced technology in the choice

of structure, and tradition in the local type of

house adopted. If a Pompeiian house consistsof a central patio with rooms opening off it,the chorizo alters that typology by means of

a simple division line over the centre. Thus atripartite plan is obtained: a row of bedrooms,

a connecting gallery and an open space(the patio). This same tripartition is clearly

present in the House over the Brook.By breaking down the plan, which rests

on the bridge structure, it is easy to observethat the row of rooms lies on one side, and on

the other we find a completely unified spacethat projects outward, accompanied by a

ribbon window all along the perimeter, whichinterprets the patio idea. In the middle,

acting as a gallery, are the stairs and the

corridor to the bedrooms. It is interesting tonote how Williams handles the roof slab byadopting a construction technique that was

unusual for the time. The reinforced-concreteslab has a raised edge, inside which rests a

floating pavement that sits on small masonrypiers. On top of it, he positioned “objects” –

from the skylights to the water tank – in acomposition that seems to bear comparison

with the purist painting of Le Corbusier, allthe while perfectly responding to the strictest

technical and functional necessities. Affinities between the Swiss master

and Williams are also noticeable in theservice pavilion. This small outbuilding is

a concentration of all sorts of informationthat helps us to understand and appreciate

the Argentinian architect’s compositionalthinking.

The pavilion stands next to the entrance tothe property. In fact, after entering through

a two-winged gate designed personally byWilliams and reminiscent of those used

in farms scattered across the pampas, weimmediately see the part occupied by the

garage on the right. From here, a pathway,


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Top: the living area. Above: the staircase fromground level leads to theliving level of the house.Regarding his choiceof material, Williams said, “For the first time,

a construction material,reinforced concrete, canbe used without the needfor masking or cladding,which is equivalent toconstructing withoutgiving a false impression”


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are minimal. The kitchen is divided from thebedrooms by an open-air courtyard, a patio,

an important space serving as a hub in theeconomy of walking routes and domestic life

of the small residence. In the patio, a washtubhelps to give size to the layout. Basically,

there are three elements here: the white-plastered volume of the two bedrooms; the

curved, natural stone wall, hooked at eitherend to enclose the kitchen on one side and the

garage on the other; and the void of the patioinbetween.

The white volume contains two roomsof equal size, on either side of a central

axis. Dividing them in the middle are theentrance hall and the bathroom. The plan is

not a regular one, but takes up the form of acircumference sector lopped off at its point by

another circumference sector. The peculiarityof this small volume is its roof, which bringsus back to the association with Le Corbusier,

his studies of low vaults and in particular, hissketch called Ma Maison . Williams borrowed

this example to build the roof using tworeinforced concrete vaults, prefabricated

according to the methods advocated by the

French engineer Eugène Freyssinet, inpositions corresponding to the two bedrooms.Inside, the rooms are lit mostly from above,

through the aperture created between the vault and the perimeter wall.

Once again the result produces excellentplasticity, where Williams displays is capacity

to seize the potential of a constructiontechnique combined with an admirable

command of composition. Maintainedthroughout his long career, that talent enabled

him to build other examples of rare beauty.

Top and above: detail ofa technical element andgeneral view of the flatroof. Using a constructiontechnique that wasunusual for the time,

Williams placed a raisedpavement distanced by small masonry blockson top of the reinforcedconcrete slab

Page 80-81: the ascentto the living quartersis a gradual, ritualpassage from the shadowy underbrushto the conquest of light

Upstairs, the lofty positionclose to the treetopsgives the impression ofbeing higher up than oneactually is

wide enough for a car, bends to the right andleads to the master building. First however,

in the midst of the dense vegetation, theoutbuilding can be seen in its entirety.

This pavilion was designed to containthe garage and accommodate the owner’s

domestic staff, thus defining a functionalprogramme that to all effects envisaged

another home, except that here the spaces


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the house over the brook - amancio williams, 1943

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