Andes House, Puembo home, Modern Ecuador real estate photos, South American property development

Andes House in Puembo

24 July 2025

Architects: Correa+Fatehi | ODD

Location: Puembo, Quito, Ecuador, South America

Photos by BICUBIK

Andes House in Puembo, Ecuador

Set on the rural outskirts of Quito, A House in the Andes is a private residence that reconsiders the relationship between architecture, landscape, and material. Built from the soil it displaces, and embedded in sculpted terrain, the house unfolds across three levels, organized by a mobile platform. Its spatial clarity and porous earthen envelope reflect a grounded, responsive approach to contemporary dwelling.

Integration with terrain
Rising from sculpted mounds of native vegetation, the house is defined by a landscape strategy that echoes local topography and evokes a sense of highland wilderness.

Processional access is carved into the mounds, revealing rammed earth walls and referencing the Chaquiñán—ancestral trails once used to navigate the rugged Andean geography. This approach choreographs movement through terrain, leading to a sunken threshold and immersive sectional sequence.

Sectional organization and mobility
From a distance, the house appears as a compact vertical monolith—discreet and grounded. Internally, the section is organized around a mobile platform that moves through all three levels. More than a means of circulation, it enables spatial flexibility—allowing programs to shift, merge, and reconfigure with time and use. At the second level, the architecture opens outward into a plateau of lawn and water—an interior pool and exterior garden divided by operable glazing, uniting landscape and interior in a single gesture.

Material grounded in place
Excavated earth is compacted into rammed earth walls and cast into a single custom module of adobe brick. This breathable, ventilated façade modulates temperature and light, casting intricate shadows that evolve with the sun. At night, it emits a soft, porous glow—transforming monolithic mass into atmosphere. By building with the very ground it stands on, the house becomes both a symbolic and material extension of the landscape.

Contextual resolution
Through the transformation of ground into form, A House in the Andes becomes inseparable from its site—defined by sectional depth, environmental sensitivity, and material continuity. Its architecture emerges not as an object imposed on the land, but as a spatial system attuned to its contours and conditions. Form, rhythm, and atmosphere are drawn directly from the landscape itself, producing a dwelling that is rooted in place, responsive to context, and composed with quiet intentionality.

Andes House in Puembo, Ecuador – Property Information

Architects: Correa+Fatehi | ODD – https://en.oddarchitects.com/

Project Name: A House in the Andes
Location: Puembo, Ecuador

Client: Private
Architect: CORREA + FATEHI | ODD
Project sector: Residential
Project completion date: 2021

CORREA+FATEHI | ODD

Founded by Lucas Correa and co-directed with Parshan Fatehi, CORREA+FATEHI | ODD is an architecture studio based in Quito, Ecuador, and currently expanding its practice to Toronto, Canada. The studio’s award-winning work spans residential, hospitality, and urban design projects, and is known for its spatial clarity and material intelligence.

Established in 2015, the practice was founded with a clear mission: to create original, grounded architecture that responds to place with precision, purpose, and cultural relevance. Their approach, which they describe as adaptive grounding, treats each project as a system shaped by context, material, and long-term use.

Working across scales—from crafted spaces to complex urban frameworks—the studio bridges design rigor and strategic thinking to produce work that is both rooted and forward-looking.