Modular organic farming commune is topped with a green roof in Argentina

Want to get away from the city hustle bustle? This tranquil farm retreat in the subtropics of Argentina may be just what you’re looking for.

Buenos Aires-based architecture studio IR arquitectura designed Yerbas del Paraiso, an organic farming hostel with a cozy and calming environment. Built from timber, the modular structure is raised on stilts and topped with a green roof to minimize its visual and physical impact on the landscape.

IR arquitectura designed Yerbas del Paraiso with triangular modules in order to lessen the building’s impact on the landscape. The modular architecture gave the architects the freedom to build around existing trees rather than cut them down. The resulting building formation takes on an unconventional and organic shape that sprawls out on the land like an expanding web.

Local building techniques were used in construction. Each of the structural axes are spaced three meters apart to allow for easy modification. The Yerbas del Paraiso comprises a series of flexible spaces including living areas and multipurpose rooms. Large doors fold back for maximum ventilation.

“The project implements a replicable model in each of its points: the architecture, the economic logic, the energy criteria, integrated farming practices and reforestation,” write the architects. “It offers a rural area a number of tools that propose ways of inhabiting these sensitive forest areas with production needs, and develop an equivalent degree of integration on a social level.”