Architects Nataša Stanaćev and Manu Granados were living in southern Spain when they received a request to build a small cabin next to an existing beach house. The client, a real estate developer named Andrés Galesio, explained that it would be a sort of hideaway for his teenage kids, a place where they could sleep and host barbecues and get-togethers. He had already chosen the location for this structure—right by the edge of a bluff on the property’s sloped yard—and he wanted the work to begin in a month.

It was an interesting brief and a straightforward project, except for one thing: The location was 7,000 miles away in the coastal village of Matanzas in Chile, where Stanaćev and Granados had been based before the pandemic. “As soon as we moved back to Spain, we started getting requests from Chile,” says Granados, who is Spanish (Stanaćev, his wife and business partner, is Serbian). “We ended up doing several projects via Zoom, with clients we’d never met before.”

In this case, Andrés had seen a home that the couple designed for one of his neighbors. “I really liked the style it had, and how all the details came together,” he says. “I needed someone who could handle the challenge of building on a steep hill with 180 degrees of ocean views.”

Matanzas, a rugged stretch of the Pacific coast about 100 miles west of Santiago, is as beautiful as it is tricky. The sea is rough, and the weather is so blustery that it’s become a destination for windsurfers and kitesurfers from all over the world. Although Stanaćev and Granados were in another continent, it helped tremendously that they had lived in Matanzas for about three years. They not only knew about the winds, but they also had established relationships with local builders at a time when construction was booming and workers were scarce.

True to their minimalist aesthetic, the architects designed a simple rectangle covering just over 600 square feet, built entirely from local wood and glass. Given the impressive natural setting, some 300 feet above sea level with broad views of crashing waves, sand dunes, and a marine forest, anything other than simplicity and transparency would have been unwarranted. But Stanaćev and Granados not only thought about the views from the cabin—they also considered views of the cabin.

With that in mind, they gave it a green roof planted with low-growing succulents that harmonize with the cypress forest that reigns over the half-acre lot. When the client and his wife are in the main house, a contemporary 1,000-square-foot modular home set on a slightly more elevated plane, the new cabin is almost invisible. “It completely mimics the surroundings,” says Andrés. “And when you are down at the beach, you can’t really tell there’s a construction there unless you catch a ray of sun reflecting from the glass. All you see are the trees.”

The interior of the cabin is divided into two sections. A corridor in the back holds a bathroom, closet, and bedroom, while a larger open space in the front has a kitchen, dining area, living room, and standalone fireplace. Retractable glass doors cover the entire west and south walls.

Between these two sections are a series of plywood panels. When they are shut, it looks like a solid wooden wall, and when they slide open, the bedroom becomes part of the main living area (only the bathroom and closet remain separate, behind static plywood doors).

“We wanted everything to be super integrated,” says Stanaćev. “Even the furniture is made of the same materials as the walls and finishes, so there’s no difference between them.” With the exception of a rug and pouf, every piece of furniture was designed by the architects and made on-site by the workers hired to build the cabin.

“We didn’t want there to be any ‘noise,’ or things that stood out,” adds Granados. “The views are exceptional, so we wanted to let them be the focus.”

Soon after completing this project, the husband-and-wife team decided to move to Chile once again, this time to Santiago. They say it was Andrés who encouraged them to base their studio, Stanaćev Granados Arquitectura, in South America. “Andrés is very energetic and positive; he said ‘come back here, you’ll have plenty of work,’” says Granados. “It wasn't something we expected or planned.” One of their upcoming projects is Andrés’s main beach house: after seeing the finished cabin, he’s getting ready to transport his modular home elsewhere, clearing the way for construction to begin.

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Stanaćev Granados / @stanacev.granados

Builder/Contractor: Mauricio Barria

Structural Engineer: Stanaćev Granados

Landscape Design: Joaquin Lobato

Lighting Design: Stanaćev Granados

Interior Design: Stanaćev Granados

Cabinetry Design: Stanaćev Granados

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They Designed This Tiny Chilean Cabin From 7,000 Miles Away