Casa del árbol de los Andrada

Casa del árbol de los Andrada is a treehouse under construction at Andrada Estate. For Bea, it is both a professional responsibility and an increasingly charged place: she returns to supervise the work after a painful conversation with Diego, and later the unfinished structure becomes the stage for a confrontation between Diego and Víctor.

Construction and Setting

After her dispiriting conversation with Diego, Bea returns to Andrada Estate unsure whether she still has the right to be there. She tries to keep her distress out of view, supervises the construction professionally, and pushes the work forward so she will not need to visit every day. Diego is absent throughout that first day back. His mother-in-law watches Bea from her wheelchair on the terrace, even using binoculars to keep her under observation, and sends word through a caregiver that she hopes construction will not take too long. Bea answers that the work is proceeding as quickly as possible.

The construction is specific and still in progress: the house is made of wood, with insulation intended to go between the timbers. On a later visit, Bea is arguing with a builder over a delivery error—the crew has brought the wrong insulating material. Her need to resolve practical details keeps her at the site even as her personal life presses in around it.

The Worksite and Bea’s Personal Life

Bea’s presence at the house is not always necessary for the project. After learning of Víctor’s relationship with a television presenter, she goes to work the next day partly to take her mind off him, despite having already communicated the important decisions by phone. That choice brings Víctor to Andrada Estate: Ingrid arrives with him after he has gone to Bea’s studio, saying he urgently needs to speak with her. Bea is surprised to see him there and regards his presence at the estate as out of place, as though he has entered the wrong story.

The treehouse therefore gathers together two kinds of work that Bea is trying to keep separate. She approaches its construction as a professional task, but the estate is also where her unresolved relationships intrude. Her effort to limit how often she visits has not made the place emotionally neutral, and the house under construction becomes a point of contact between her work and the people she would rather keep at a distance.

The Confrontation on the Structure

During the later confrontation, Víctor handles a hose with such force that Diego can barely get close to him; as Víctor moves from side to side, he ends up soaking Bea and another woman nearby. Before turning off the tap, Víctor climbs the treehouse stairs and takes up a position above Diego. He drops the hose, then uses the loose boards and tools lying on the ground to stop Diego from climbing after him.

From the unfinished structure, Víctor refuses to come down until Diego moves at least fifty metres away. He also compliments Bea’s work, singling out her use of space and talent, even as she tells him to be quiet and demands that he leave her treehouse. His praise does not settle the conflict: the house’s stairs, height, loose boards, and tools have become part of the standoff. The building is no longer merely a project Bea supervises; its physical form gives Víctor a temporary position of advantage and turns the worksite into a battleground.

Significance

The treehouse’s role shifts with the people who enter it. Bea tries to make the construction a bounded professional undertaking, even hurrying the work to reduce the need for visits. Yet the site draws her back into difficult personal encounters, first through Víctor’s unexpected arrival and then through his occupation of the structure during the confrontation with Diego. The unfinished house makes those tensions visible in material terms: what is meant to be built becomes, for a moment, something to climb, defend, and fight over.