The White Modular House is a 280-square-metre residence designed by SET Arquitectura in Córdoba Province, Argentina. Positioned on a steep mountainside site, the home was developed to minimise intervention in the natural terrain through a raised steel structure supported by stilts. The three-storey building uses a square plan and a modular design strategy that informed its layout, structural system, façade composition, and circulation. Corrugated metal cladding and an all-white exterior give the residence a unified appearance that contrasts with the surrounding vegetation and rocky landscape.
An elevated steel walkway leads to the main entrance on the middle level, which contains the living room, kitchen, and dining area. Large glazed openings frame views across the valley and connect the interior with outdoor terraces and platforms. Bedrooms are distributed across the lower and upper floors, creating different relationships with the surrounding landscape.
Image Credit: Gonzalo Viramonte
What's Driving This Trend
- Elevated Modular Living
- Raised prefabricated structures create new potential for residential development on steep or fragile sites with reduced land disturbance.
- Terrain-light Architecture
- Minimal-ground-contact design reflects a growing market for homes that preserve natural landscapes while expanding buildable possibilities in challenging environments.
- Steel-framed Prefab Homes
- Industrialized steel systems offer faster assembly, structural adaptability, and distinctive aesthetics for remote residential projects facing complex topography.
Who This Affects Most
- Residential Construction
- Modular hillside housing introduces scalable methods for building premium homes where conventional foundations are costly, invasive, or technically difficult.
- Architecture and Design
- Site-responsive prefabrication expands creative possibilities for architects combining environmental sensitivity, panoramic glazing, and standardized structural logic.
- Building Materials
- Lightweight steel frames and corrugated metal cladding support demand for durable, low-maintenance envelope systems suited to elevated and exposed residential settings.
