Luis Longhi Treverso is a Peru-based architect, Sculptor, Scenographer and Museographer and is also the founder of “Longhi Architects”, founded in 1996. His professional and academic practices are based in Peru, and he has worked with many known architects such as BV Doshi in India, Adele Santos, David Slovic and Bower Lewis & Thrower Architects in Philadelphia, Gruen Associates in Los Angeles and Farrington Design Group in Atlanta. A recipient of the Gold Medal for Architecture awarded by the Peruvian Institute of Architecture in 2010. Longhi has done multiple projects, but his expertise lies in creating residential projects and making clients’ dreams come true when it comes to designing the houses they want to live in for a long period of their lives. His most famous residential projects are mentioned below in his native country.
Casa Atrapasuenos | Longhi
Location: Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2020
Size: 3000 sq.ft – 5000 sq.ft
Also known as “The Dream Catcher House”. Located in the archaeological site Chan Chan in Trujillo Peru, the structure contemplates the pre-Columbian architecture details, manifesting space with culture. The fishers’ nets of Chimu inspired the concept of the catchment of dreams, which later became the house’s name as well. The client required a simple program consisting of a single bedroom, a bar and a garage which would turn into a multipurpose room so that he could spend some of his last years in his country. To respond to the main concept, the façade of the structure is a white mesh that melts into the horizon of the sea enhancing its sculpture quality. The house’s interior is an achromatic explosion accentuating the culture, elevating the composition’s sculptural aspect framing the vastness of the sea, generating shadows on the surface to realistically represent the catching of dreams through the play of lights creating a divine atmosphere throughout the residence.
Alvarez Beach House
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2010
Area: 580 m2
Located on a cliff of Playa Misterio, a gated beach community, south of Lima. The Alvarez beach house was a structure of a specific program required by the client: a successful surgeon with a large family. The social area of the house was near the entry occupying two levels, while the accommodations of the children and parents were divided into two parts. Two levels above the social area were designed for the boys and their guests whereas the 3 levels below the social area were designed for the parents, girls and their guests. All the recreational facilities along with the pool were located at the lower levels with a series of terraces designed to connect the house with the ocean.
Casa Taller Chullpas | Longhi
Location: Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2020
Size: 3000 sq.ft – 5000 sq.ft
The design of the “Casa Chullpas” was inspired by the fragments of the architect’s life and was reflected in many parts of the house which went unnoticed until the day the work was completed. The previous work of the architect on the same site “Pachacamac House” is situated adjacent to the site, giving the architect pride, joy and emotions to instil in this ongoing project. Casa Chullpas is a self-commissioned work of the architect with relevance to the Casa Pachacamac. it is a stone wall in the landscape, as a sign of presence in the adjoining lots and ended in a studio house without any apparent order, except that of having the logic of self-construction based on the architect’s budget. The main space exposed upon entering the house is a sculpted space where he would receive his students and give talks and reflects the origin of the owner through displaying different objects created almost 50 years of students and professional life, organized in strategic parts, ceilings, corridors, Chullpas and terrace among others. Casa Taller Chullpas is the place where the architects plan to die, having already pristine the space to shelter his ashes, where life triumphs over death. Finally, this house/workshop/small palace is the heart of the architect, he is himself converted into architecture, and it is the manifest of his interior.
Pachacamac House
Location: Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2008
Area: 5000 m2
Located on the hill in Pachacamac, 40 km south of Lima near the Peru coast, the site is the retirement home of a philosopher. The clients demanded a space that could transport them to their memories both from the past and the future and gave total freedom to the architect to explore the design. The untouched site on the coast forced the architect to interpret the design of the structure to create a relationship with the landscape. It should be direct sophisticated, romantic, respectful, sane or insane. Hence as a response to the site, the architect decided to bury the house inside the hill, trying to create a balanced dialogue between architecture and landscape where inside/ outside becomes a constant interpretation of materiality with a strong sense of protection and appreciation of the dark and light. The glass box sticking out of the hill symbolizes the architectural intervention of untouched nature.
Veronica Beach House | Longhi
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2014
Area: 650 m2
Veronica House is an amalgamation of design styles between Peruvian Architecture and International Style. It is an intervention between artificial and natural with a nearly 40 meters’ pool with a glass enclosure based on the rail system elevated on a platform carved into the hill and a multi-level staircase that integrates with the natural surroundings of the site. Intimate areas are accommodated in a volume of two levels, that floats above the terrace, generating a nice architectural dialogue with the rock side both south and north of the lot, with a bulk composition that could be interpreted as the geometrization of the nature of the place. Balanced use of five main materials: cast stone concrete which has its color driven from the natural rock source. It is an attempt to create a house that feels comfortable in its place resorting to the only thing that can unite a community, their culture.
A House Forever
Location: La Molina, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2013
Area: 550 m2
The house is an exploration of ancestral contemporary architecture fulfilling the demands of the client, to create a house they would live in forever, which eventually became a “container of life. The vision of the house was confirmed when the architect visited the site and saw the family already living there with their 2 kids. The main task was to design this house was to demolish the existing structure but keep the spirit of the space alive and make it a house forever. The metaphor to design the house was to imagine it as a big ancestral rock, craved to accommodate a living space. The black carved stone occupied a 4-car garage, service patio, maids quarter and pool baths in the basement; kitchen, dining and living spaces on the first floor. The built-in furniture in the living spaces was carved with a strong texture assorting to the natural and artificial material in order for the allegory stone to remain as natural as possible. The complete composition of the house also includes four cantilever volumes containing the intimate rooms as white floating stones.
Casa CC
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2010
Area: 389 m2
The house is a two-volume crown built on top of the hill at Playa Misterio. One cube is an exposed concrete block emerging from the earth itself whereas the other block is built of glass and appears to be “floating” on the site. The program of the house is divided such that the social area of the house dwells on the lower level whereas the master bedroom is situated at the top. The children’s area is accommodated in two levels in the glass box whereas the area between the two blocks is a staircase designed as a series of sculptural elements that connect the concrete and the glass provoking a play of light and shadow due to the effects of the sun at different hours of the day.
Lefevre Beach House | Longhi
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2006
Area: 530 m2
The structure is a conceived space where the Peruvian desert meets the Pacific Ocean. Located at the Punta Misterio, the structure is an intervention of integrating architecture and landscape. The sand garden roofs act as the extension of the desert whereas the lap and the recreation pool connect the house to the ocean. The glass box hanging from the structure symbolized the architecture between sand and water
Casa Q
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2010
Area: 404 m2
Casa Q has a unique natural environment surrounding it with infinite rolling dunes from the desert to the east and the rocky Pacific Ocean cliffs used by the fishermen to the West. It is the first residence built in the area not occupied at the beach Club Misterio. The Residence challenges the stillness of the surroundings and materializes the dreams of a young couple in a floating volume which embodies the space for a future family. The structure is supported by circular columns placed by intuition, as a dance, instead of forcibly in the grid. The common area of the house is defined by the sliding glass panels enclosing the living-dining and terrace. The glass slide panels work as a separator or a connection of the common area of eth house to the surrounding by opening or closing these panels based on the social and weather conditions. The rest of the functions: guest rooms, kitchen and the services are scheduled at the back of the sloped site thus providing visual contrast with a volume of water in the front which has been unearthed for the enjoyment of swimming. Each view of the house connects to an infinite horizon.
Volumes With Gender | Longhi
Location: Lima, Peru
Typology: Residential
Year: 2011
Area: Not mentioned
The residence belongs to Carlos and Neni, a paediatrician and a Gynecologist and their two college kids. To interpret the dreams of having a summer life in this house, three separate clusters were created on a site with strict regulations for a single house. These three spaces are separated through open spaces that allow the natural lights and cross ventilation in all the private spaces providing common vertical and horizontal circulation articulated by cast-in-place sculptural elements. The bigger volume belongs to the couple and faces the southwest with a spectacular view of the ocean, accommodating a master bedroom on the second floor, the private terrace at the roof level and all social space at the first level connected to a large terrace and an infinite pool. The smaller ones are for the children and face northwest also with spectacular views of the ocean. Each volume with its three levels is dedicated to the kids and their friends. The daughter volume consists of a female terrace holding a male cast-in-place table, similarly, the male terrace is holding a female table. A double heightened volume for all bedrooms in the kid’s section with built-in beds and closet to provide privacy within different spaces.
Bibliography:
- https://architizer.com/firms/longhi-architects/
- https://www.longhiarchitect.com/info
- https://www.archilovers.com/luis-longhi-traverso/
- https://www.archdaily.com/office/longhi-architects?ad_name=project-specs&ad_medium=single
- https://archello.com/brand/longhi-architects
