In Chile, a country not much more than 100 miles wide with 3,000 miles of coastline, living on the edge of the world is pretty much a given.

From its perch in the foothills of the Andes, the new graduate center on the Peñalolén campus of Adolfo Ibáñez University overlooks Chile’s capital city of Santiago.

With a limited budget of $147,000 and a 1.25-acre parcel of land in the suburbs of Santiago, Chile, a retired couple approached Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas of the firm FAR frohn&rojas to design a house for themselves and their son.

Casa Poli is only a 30-mile drive from Chile’s second-largest city, Concepción, midway down the country’s coast, but it feels perched at the edge of the world: a place with limitless ocean views, a soundtrack provided by wind and pelicans, and no other human beings within eyeshot, except for local fishermen in boats, hundreds of feet offshore.