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Architects: Taller Estilo Arquitectura
- Area: 375 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Manolo Solís
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Lead Architects: Víctor Alejandro Cruz Domínguez, Iván Atahualpa Hernández Salazar, Luís Armando Estrada Aguilar, Silvia Cuitún Coronado, Yahir Ortega Pantoja
Text description provided by the architects. With the premise of "He arrived first", Casa Tamarindo is a home that aims to explain the symbiosis between architecture and nature. The tree is the main piece and organizing axis of the architectural project. Built elements that frame nature from the main entrance to the other spaces that make up the program. The location of the walls that organize the floor plan functions as guidelines that lead us to the main entrance of the house.
The public and private areas are naturally separated by orientation and responding to the original location of the tree, maintaining most of the original landscape intact and bringing the natural landscape inside. All areas of the house are naturally connected to the outdoors, always seeking internal courtyards and paths that end in gardens. A proposal that not only rescues a tree but makes it the protagonist of the project.
A home with a deep connection to nature and art. Instead of avoiding trees, the architects decided to embrace them. Located in the center of the San Sebastian neighborhood, on a plot with irregular characteristics and pre-existing vegetation, it was the canvas to develop a single-family home for a plastic artist and his wife, a graphic designer and writer.
Although the architectural program was not complex, the characteristics of the plot, the client's requirements regarding the image, the existing larger trees that had to be preserved in their entirety, and the adjoining elements were the factors that created the challenge of resolving a 2-bedroom home with a bathroom, an open-plan living/dining/kitchen area, a studio for plastic work, a writing and work studio, and various exterior areas that include garden areas, a pool, an outdoor dining area, an outdoor living area, and a sunbathing area, all resolved on a single floor.
The general concept of the project was to create a home that allows its inhabitants to enjoy different spaces throughout the day, organizing these around the Tamarind tree, which was the oldest and largest tree, seeking the best possible orientation for the use of cross breezes and natural lighting.
Two elements clearly stand out in the composition of the ensemble: the Tamarind tree, which serves as a focal point and organizes the spaces around it, as a central courtyard allowing the interiors to open towards a controlled, designed, and contained exterior by the architectural volumes.
The second element is the guiding wall that receives all the inhabitants, their own and strangers, and leads them gradually through the terrain, creating a pleasant path throughout the journey, from the street access to the main entrance itself. This wall is present and transforms along its length, sometimes being completely blind and imposing with its 6.20 meters in height, and at other times, it opens up to create a large window that frames in both directions either the built architectural element or the existing and complementary vegetation. It also transforms into a niche that marks the access and houses the exterior vestibule of the main entrance, to finally end and receive the plastic work studio.
The materials of the interior and exterior walls were essential to achieve the image that the clients were looking for. Although the taste for Yucatecan haciendas was present, the primary premise was to create a contemporary, timeless work where the materials (like the haciendas) could age gracefully and show the patina of time, integrating it into the image of the home itself.
This search led us to decide to use materials that felt natural, and raw, with changing life throughout the day. Polished integral color cement offers us this diversity because, not being a completely flat and uniform surface, it gives a more natural and organic feeling. This achieved image and the functional solution of the spaces generated an image that we call Contemporary Hacienda.
