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Architects: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
- Area: 350 m²
- Year: 2004
Text description provided by the architects. SURROUNDINGS
This weekend single-family dwelling is located in the Valley of Guadalupe in Baja California, Mexico.
The valley, known for its wine production, is surrounded by amber-colored mountains and pierced by dirt roads continuously winding between vineyards and olive trees. These surroundings serve as visual lines and filters that lead to the property and extend through the house. Thus, the project is born from the dialog with its natural settings, in contrast with the intensity of weekly urban life.
LOCATION
The property is comprised of seven lots that meet around a vineyard. The access road of each plot crosses the outer periphery of the site through a field of olive trees, which generates a visual filter towards the house and the vineyard. With the olive trees extending to the house, we generated the first element - a stone curtain, 54 m long and 3m high, with a few perforations that frame the views on the other side of this semi-public boundary. Acting as the main axis, this stonewall is placed parallel to the vineyard and perpendicular to the existing rows of olive trees that cross the house.
SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT
The lineal arrangement of paces: public (surroundings), semi-public (gravel patio), private (living area) and intimate (bedrooms), creates a visual succession. The connection between spaces is always outside, so that the natural surroundings define the boundaries of the house and provide a changing sensory experience between day and night, cold and hot.
The series of spaces are organized along the stonewall, opening to the views and the breeze from the vineyard, further emphasized by the roof that flies over the house. The idea of the roof was born at the first visit to the site with the desire to provide great shade, framed views and cross ventilation.
Eliminating the front door, the entrance is defined between the swimming pool and the rows of olive trees, creating a terrace that naturally integrates with the living/dining/kitchen area by opening the glass doors of the living space to the outside, where the swimming pool injects life and the views - peace and freshness.
In addition to the series of boundaries mentioned above - public (olive trees) and semi-public (stonewall), the swimming pool provides yet another threshold between the private and intimate spaces. Inspired by an old legend, the threshold is crossed by a wooded bridge that takes to a narrow corridor at the guest's tower, leading to the f lower garden and the bedrooms. The house rests on top of a gravel bed that serves as a base and also eliminates dust, common in this region.
