Text by: Romana Lilic
Photos: LA76 Strategic Design & Photography
Published in: ESCAPES #7

“I BELIEVE in an emotional architecture.”, once said one of Mexico’s most influential architects, Luis Barragán. Barragán reinvented Mexican modern architecture with sensuous aesthetics, vivid colors, attention to spaces and light, while accentuating the building’s natural surroundings. Emotional or sensual architecture is just how we could describe the style of San Jose del Cabo’s new contemporary home by acknowledged Mexican architects Javier Gutiérrez Toscano and Antonio Plá from ColectivoMX.

Casa Gavión evokes an emotional reaction at your first encounter. The impact of its massive proportions, volumes, forms, textures and colors will not leave you unmoved, guaranteed. Before continuing to explore its spaces indoors and outdoors, we recommend that you take off your flip flops, as this home is best enjoyed barefoot. Then stretch your arms, open your hands, and get ready for a flood of sensations. Casa Gavión is literally a sensational home.

In an awarded architectural studio ColectivoMX, well known for their regionalism in home design, they had four principles in mind during the creation of this impressive nature conscious home; passive pollution of the area by using regional materials and local labor force during the construction, sensibility of the materials by using different textures and reinterpreting their usage, integrating the indoor and outdoor spaces, and thus maximizing the usage of the space, while keeping the home user friendly with low maintenance costs.

The concept of the home is based on its residents and the enjoyment of all the spaces, where exterior becomes equally important as interior, complimenting the great weather of Baja California Sur. All the spaces in Casa Gavión are looking to the exterior, with each room having its own garden or terrace.

Dining and living room open to the large terrace and patio with the pool and lounge area. Bedroom on the ground level looks to the cardon cactus patio, and the kitchen opens to the stone patio and the garden. Both master bedrooms on the 1st floor each have their own terrace, and on the 2nd floor there is a large terrace with 360 C views of the Sea of Cortez, adjacent golf courses and the majestic mountains, ideal for sipping wine at sunset and star gazing.

The key characteristic of this home and the essence for its name is the rock wall, “gavión”. While you will notice gavión at the sides of the federal highway between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, the architect reinterpreted its use and its excellent isolation features to protect the spaces in the home from the sun while at the same time making it function as blinds, letting the air through the wall and cooling the area.

The advantage of owning a home in Baja is being able to live inside and outside at the same time. When walking around, you will notice that this home is without windows: pocket doors have been built throughout the home, so when you are in, you can have them wide open and enjoy the fresh breeze, the salty ocean smell and the birds singing. Windows in Casa Gavión function as a security asset: you use your windows when you are not using your home. The orientation of the home, cross ventilation, pergolas and a rock wall ensure isolation within the home and eliminate the need to use the air-conditioning.

Eternal summer was one of the reasons for different textures, implemented in this home. Rock wall, pebble stones, gypsum, stucco, rustic plaster, fine plaster and wood are only some of the materials you will enjoy while walking around barefoot. In the main patio alone you can experience fine grass, beach sand, water, stucco and rustic plaster, which you can enjoy depending on your feelings and desires. Let your children play in the house and see how impressed by the textures they will be. The architect’s daughters are walking around barefoot with their hands stretched out, touching and feeling everything that surrounds them with great joy.

In the past, hearing the term “ecological home” we used to think of high construction and high maintenance costs. Luckily, with  advances in technology, acceptance of the eco standards world wide and with it also lower implementation prices, Javier Gutierrez confirms that the construction costs of this home didn’t exceed the construction cost of any regular home.

The home has been planed and prepared to help you save energy and money, while protecting the nature at the same time. Prepared system for solar energy will help greatly reduce the consumption of electricity. Grey water usage system is installed and ready to use. Ingenious planning of the pool, consisting of dipping pool, swimming pool and jacuzzi reduces the water consumption generally used in homes with pools. Besides that, the roof, which is the largest source of heat to any house, is isolated with thick high density foam, thus reducing the need for AC.

Hard to comprehend for anyone having experienced the summers in Baja, but proven true, is that in Casa Gavión you don’t need to use air-conditioning, even in the hottest summer months. The cross-ventilation, isolation, the mix of indoor and outdoor spaces, open pocket doors, ventilators and breeze assure a fresh wind through all the living areas. Even though, air-conditioners are set for days or moments too hot to handle.

Casa Gavión is truly a sensational home. It will tickle your senses and bring out emotions, every day, guaranteed.

*Casa Gavión is FOR SALE. Contact us for a brochure and to schedule a tour: escapes@cbriveras.com.

See the full photo gallery from our photo shoot:

Casa Gavion, San Jose del Cabo – Images by Romana Lilic @LA76

Read an article about Casa Shelly, an awarded home by architectural studio ColectivoMX.

by Mariano Arias Diez
Contemporary Urban Space
Architect, a10studio
Feed back: info@a10studio.net

BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR (BCS), the youngest state of Mexico (37 years), has been acknowledged as one of the most beautiful places in Mexico, and due to its proximity to the United States, often referred to as a second home retreat for baby boomers. With the growth and development of Baja the interest and migration of young professionals to this unique place have grown as well. Young professionals are good for BCS, not only because we’ll have a generation that will continue the legacy of the land, but mostly because they are the ones who will be able to promote it, build it and make it grow with new creative and quality ideas. Today, we need strategic urban planning, development of walking areas, functional drainage systems, traffic re-direction, sustainable, efficient and cost effective ideas and implementation, which will improve the future of the towns and of people who live here.

Due to several reasons, it wasn’t always possible to find the best quality for things we would like to do in this region. Slowly, this has changed, and the once popular demand for caricaturized “Mexican” homes often seen in some western movies, has started to be replaced with contemporary design, sustainable living and a preservation of local nature.

Young professionals in BCS have been often under-appreciated. Good news is that young architects with academic and professional international experience have started coming here, recognizing its development potential and a challenge they want to be part of. In this occasion, I’d like to talk about four young architectural offices established in BCS, which have recently received national and international recognition for their work in the area:

Colectivo MX is an architectural office with Los Cabos and Mexico City offices, guided by Arch. Javier Gutierrez. They received a Silver Medal in the X Mexican Biennale of Architecture in 2008 for their project Casa Shelly, an ecological home located on the East Cape, which uses solar energy to generate electricity, has pool with salted water, a system for re-use of treated water and other ecological techniques.

Another example of young talent is fabriKG, guided by Arch. Gonzalo Elizarrarás, in Los Cabos, and Arch. Benjamin Scharf in Berlin, Germany, who were nominated in the category of Future Residential Projects at the World Architecture Festival Awards 09 in Barcelona, for their project Knit Atelier House.

From La Paz, collective TALCO, leaded by Mauricio Sanchez Torres and Adriaan Schalkwijk, who, in cooperation with Alejandro Dacosta, developed the project Aquatic Park Coromuel, which received 1st place in urban development on national category at the CEMEX 2009 awards.

Lastly we’d like to mention a10studio, with presence in Los Cabos and Mexico City, whose project Re.evolution lounge+bar has been extensively published in acknowledged and specialized design and architectural media, and is nominated for the international award “Restaurant and Bar Design Awards” in the U.K.

These four young architectural offices are a small example of talent that we have in the region today, and we’ll be surely hearing about them in the future. Hopefully, planning and urban authorities, developers and clients will support the young talents, listen to their new ideas, views and possibilities for the better future development of our State.

The column was first published in the printed edition of ESCAPES magazine #5.

Antonio Wong Tabasco, Founder of the Hotel California

“Baja is flip flop funky… Todos Santos… lined with artisans shops, and it is here that you will find The Hotel California.”
-Vanity Fair

• Hotel California is accessed by driving down a long desert highway from either Los Cabos to the south or La Paz to the east.
• The Mission Church of Pilar is located directly adjacent to the hotel and mission bells are heard daily. Since the Church is so close it sounds like they are almost inside the hotel at times.
• Countless stories and firsthand witnesses relating to spirits and ghosts in the courtyard of the hotel.
• During the “Hippie Era” of the 1960s and 1970s, people were know to easily grow their own marijuana in the extremely fertile land of the Todos Santos area and then roll them into “Colitas” which is a Mexican slang term for “Joint” or Marijuana cigarette.
• The simple fact that the Hotel California in Todos Santos was built in 1947 which was of course far before the “Hippie” or “Classic Rock” eras

 

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the picture became much more clear again.  The hotel had become neglected and in 2001, a Canadian couple John and Debbie Stewart purchased the hotel.  After completing a masterful renovation, which would later win numerous awards for design and décor, the original 16 rooms were transformed into the eclectic 11 suite hotel it is today.  The restaurant, La Coronela and bar were added and the area of the original gas station became the tienda Emporio, the hotel’s boutique gallery/bazaar.

John Stewart, creator of the modern era Hotel California

“A little jewel in the middle of the desert.”
-John Stewart, creator of the modern era Hotel California

Today the “legendary” Hotel California is an icon, shining brighter than ever.  It continues to evolve, changing with the times as it has since its birth in 1947.

 

For more information about the Hotel California, restaurants, events and bookings, please visit www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com

ESCAPES’s contributing architect Mariano Arias Diez from a10studio, with offices in Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City, has sent us an exciting news about their recent work. It’s a project they did for Agricultural Museum in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Agricultural production is one of the most internationally recognized emblems of Mexico, and particularly of the State of Sinaloa. The state of Sinaloa is known as the “granary of Mexico” because it is the producer of a big variety of food. Its efficient fields have become national leaders in their yields.

Because the economy of Sinaloa is sustained by its agricultural activities, the project seeks to recognize it and promote it, through a work that displays objects related to branches of technology, history of agriculture and agronomy as well as agricultural ways which sustain the economy of Sinaloa. Through the creation of the Museum of Agriculture the city government tries to allow the public to learn more about the forms of production in the locality, while recognizing both the agricultural practice as such, and those who make possible such a noble activity.

Project Brief

Intro:
Through agriculture, man has colonized the territory for centuries, creating irrigation systems and by planting with geometric laws. He has de-naturalized the natural areas through the planting of natural elements; the distance that is between the planted trees or plants depends on both the size of the crop itself as the collection systems used. Each plantation produces a texture and color over the territory.
Agriculture industrializes, the landscape urbanizes.

a10studio proposal’s outside is as important as the inside. There are no objects and an external reality, but a continuum between forms that wrap and un-wrap, that close and open, that focus and serve as a focus. The architecture as this, expanded in reality, in the middle, through the environment, is an extension. The environment in which it appears is a field.

They present 3 key strategies for the development of the project:
_Operative Topographies
_Ecomonumentality
_Active Ecology

The spectacle of nature and city become now comparable.

_OPERATIVE TOPOGRAPHIES:

Based on the topographic analysis of the site, we suggests a strategy of folding, cutting and movement of the territory. Such movements define platforms developed as programmatic scenarios, functional plateaus exacerbating their flexible surface condition, either as slipped and extended surfaces [dynamic soil], or as extruded surfaces [located reliefs]. In both cases it is manipulated landscapes that refer to the nature of vacant spaces, and ultimately, the very definition of landscape as a background, as construction and stage at the same time: landscapes within landscapes.

The ground respond to a willingness to overlap, the reliefs to an interlock.

These topographies form in any case, new geographies on the ground; mineral and vegetal landscapes in which the movements and flows are articulated by a manipulated geography and a generated space.

_ECOMONUMENTALITY:

We are used to think of architecture in function of the place, meaning that it could find the keys with which to tackle the project. There are many ways to anchor to the site. The whole place has gone from being understood as a landscape, whether natural or artificial, and it has ceased to be the neutral ground on which man-made architectural objects stand out, to become the object of primary interest and focus of attention. Thus, changing the point of view, the landscape loses its momentum and becomes an object of possible transformations, both at the architectural level, neighborhood and city-level.
The architecture starts a process of artificial blurring with an obvious interest in incorporating a natural condition, both in terms of composition as constructive (proposed construction system of rammed earth walls, to emphasize the use of existing assets in the site as well as develop strategies for sustainability and passive ecotechniques), in search for environmental sensitivity and a formal complexity that responds precisely to the values of the Culiacan society.
The project seeks to build a complete redefinition of the place, offering primarily the invention of a topography. So with this double movement, from the nature to the project and from the project to nature, we seek to rescue a “ecomonumental” condition.

An architectural proposal characterized by:
- Address both what is between things as things in themselves: public space [a hall, a plaza, a terrace] is therefore the primary object.
- The identification of the variability, the change as a key ingredient of architecture. With emphasis on the design of objects rather than the definition of definitive architectural programs.
- The commitment between scales. The project its determined and affects many areas beyond those granted by reason of mere physical contiguity. A project with translation capability, traveling between scales.
- Understand and feel simultaneously different scales and fields of perception and action.
- Acting on the near, immediate, tactile, and understand at the same time many other receptacles and dimensions that get modified with user actions, it is a flexible work program for the upcoming years.

_ACTIVE ECOLOGY:

To the old nostalgic or pseudobucolic ecology (freezing landscapes, territories and environments) we propose a bold ecology; reclassified to be reformulated. Based not in a fearful and non-intervention purely defensive -resistant- but in a no-tax, projective and rating -(re)promotive- intervention in synergy with the environment and also with new technologies. Not only possibilities but (re)positivist.

a10studio proposes:
- An ecology where sustainability means interaction.
- Where Nature is is also artificiality.
- Where the landscape is topography.
- Where energy is information and technology the vehicle to development.
- Where development is recycling and evolution is genetic.
- Where environment is the field.
Where retain involve always intervene.
The selection of vegetal species to exhibit took into account the degree of maintenance as well as the main agricultural products of the state of Sinaloa and the natural species of native vegetation. In this way we achieve that public space becomes in a same gesture an inside museum-park-public space. Presenting the exhibiting object in real time with their processes and characteristics of agricultural activity, where the user can directly see how these are conducted and its temporality. Species selection also took into consideration the color palette that these species may have throughout the year generating a “living park” an ever-changing exhibition and intervention which always seem dynamic and not static representation of agricultural processes.

PROJECT DATA:

architectural project: a10studio + lab07
project team: Mariano Arias-Diez, Luis Alarcón, Carlos Marín, Hugo Sánchez, Mia Modak
type: institutional, museum and park
location: Culiacan, Sinaloa (Mexico)
area: 45,000 m2
project year: 2010
client: Instituto Municipal de Planeacion (IMPLAN) de Culiacan
status: Competition finalist

CONSULTANTS:

landscape architecture: Hugo Sánchez / ENTORNO taller de paisaje
structural engineer: Ing. Fernando Alvarez / Construcciones FASA
rendering and digital visualization: Carlos Marín / lab07
lighting design: a10studio

contact a10studio:

_Sierra Guadarrama 85-1, Col. Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico .D.F 11000, Mexico
_Isla Santa Catarina, Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico
tel. +(55)26.23.26.73, +(624)13.15.14.7
email: info@a10studio.net
web: http://www.a10studio.net

Check out the area plans. We love how the thought has been put to every single detail:

And the competition boards. We would love to see the project built!

Congratulations to the whole team!

Besides Wally-Hermès Yacht and Spa Boat we found another jewel for cruising the waters of Baja California Sur:

Designed by notable naval architect Luca Brenta, of the eponymous Milan-based studio responsible for the splendid ‘Wally B’ and ‘Wallygator’, the CNB 100 / Chrisco is lithe and elegant. The yacht also has a spectacular interior, created by Wetzels Brown Partners, an Amsterdam studio with extensive experience of translating architectural concepts to transportation design, including private jets and motoryachts (English interior designer Gillian Brown, who founded the firm with her partner, Dutch architect Rob Wetzels, worked closely with Lazzarni Pickering on the iconic ‘Wallpower 118′).

For the 100ft, composite carbon fibre yacht, the design team were briefed to create every single aspect of the interior, right down to table setting, graphics and the crew’s uniforms. Tasked with such a monumental project, the first stage was to set out a simple, coherent palette.

The glassy cabin architecture allows lots of natural light into the upper deck, as well as views fore and aft. The sense of lightness is enhanced by the main mast, which is visible from both above and below decks, forming a central focus for the living accommodation.

The simple black and white colour scheme is paired with a custom-LED light installation that allows five colours to wash across the walls; it also provides a neutral backdrop for the owner’s art collection. All furniture is fitted and custom made, and the china, glassware, vases and other accessories is specially selected from Alessi, Carlo Moretti and Gaetano Pesce, respectively.

The shape of the hull is left visible so as to act as a counterpoint to the objects, cabins and forms within it. Finishes include carbon fibre, leather, linen and silk, a monochrome palette that’s complemented by the specially-designed dining chairs, created by WBP to fulfil the demands of life on the high seas without compromising their structural honeycomb form.

From outside, the glass volume that extends out of the main deck appears like a solid object, a dark faceted mass that stands in stark relief to the airy, light space within. Luca Brenta’s exterior design makes the most of these intersections between deck and hull, exaggerating the sleek lines of this ocean-going machine that’s also a testament to the success of a truly intense design brief.

Seen in Wallpaper.

THE ILLUSION of excess has finally gone off with the global economic crisis. In cities there is now a need to think on the reasons that led us to a point where the debauchery and waste generated only a sumptuous emptiness, material and ideological.

This affected the growth and shaping of cities, and now we need a real and transcendent change, to affirm from a reactive posture that we abandon the idea that “a society of wealth is a society in which all material and cultural needs meet easily”, leaving behind dysfunctional social logic that has condemned us to a “luxurious and spectacular famine”. In this sense, the public space and its proper management is crucial for the rectification of the urban nature of any contemporary city. The cities of Baja California Sur have based its development in an obsolete model of urban development FONATUR institutionalized in the 60’s.

Among other deficiencies, the local leisure facilities (for people who actually live in these tourist destinations) are always last on the list. The shortsightedness of cities and federal governments left us with mediocre private efforts which aimed more at mass consumption spaces than mass leisure areas.

In these lines we will mention the exercise of urban “acupuncture” that was recently carried out in the city of La Paz. At the beach water park Coromuel, located in front of Pedregal de la Paz, the city has recovered one of the largest and more traditional leisure spaces in the area, transforming it with a clear intention of creating quality public space, to exploit a situation presented by Urban Nature.

This intervention includes the increase of capacity of the beach area for up to 2,500 people, a quay of 115 meters which is the pinnacle of the pier, 36 palapas, 263 palms, a treatment plant with capacity of 90 thousand liters of water daily, walkways and ramps, 100 parking spaces, 6 sanitary units, public lighting, water tank, restaurant, outdoor theater and 28 store spaces.

While noble, and widely accepted by local residents, the Coromuel water park is a shy demagogic effort to generate public space. Still, the project, as many others we encounter around us, is not taking proper advantage of good situations presented by the Urban Nature. The space could among others generate its own power by solar panels that could educate people in the use of “public space”. Besides that this could be the starting point of a process of “socialization” of La Paz (or even the State) being the first intervention of a systematic and planned renovation of public spaces that is strongly needed all around Baja Sur. The nature around us is rich and offers plenty of entertainment, energy and sustainable resources. We should use them wisely and learn how to blend them into the public space, in order to be able to give back to the society and the nature itself.

Casa Shelly is located 20 minutes away from San José del Cabo, in Laguna Hills community, Cabo del Este (The East Cape). For the benefit of architectural studio ColectivoMX, Laguna Hills is one of the building developments that started before the real estate boom in Los Cabos took place; therefore, the infrastructure consisted of only a subdivision of land into lots, land roads and unique vegetation, which helped the community to keep its main attraction – its natural beauty.

The initial needs of our client, an excellent photographer and surfer, fit the aesthetics and urban treatment we had always meant to capture in Baja. He set some basic requirements – low consumption of energy and water, maintenance to a minimum and economic convenience. These requirements, added to ours – preservation of unique vegetation, minimum pollution during the building process, use of workforce and local materials, and natural ventilation – laid the grounds for a project which would only use 5 different materials produced in the zone – concrete, steel, wood, aluminum and glass – as well as a sun-and-wind based design.

The house is located in the south of the mountain with an honest view to the Mar de Cortés. The friendly weather and lack of rain allow the outdoor area to become an integrated part of daily life, which gives independence to spaces and users, therefore. 3 independent volumes and 2 vertical connections – one covered with a roof and one uncovered – make up this architectural layout.

The 2-story main volume comprises a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a warehouse and a wash area on the first floor, and the main bedroom – with a private bathroom – on the top floor. The two floors are connected through an independently placed staircase, protected from the exterior by latticework concrete, which makes one interact with the natural environment. The living room, dining room and kitchen are all integrated in the same space for casual use. The view, a key element of this space, faced in an unfavorably way, which was solved by protecting it with a huge parasol connecting the main volume to the swimming pool. On the top floor, this parasol enlarges the habitable space including an outdoor shower and a sunbathing area which gives a feel of floating over vegetation.

For volumes on the first floor, land contact was taken into account. The staircase connecting volumes opens up to the sky, and the joint giving access was used to create a yard which makes it good to take a rest from the main view. During the process of excavating soil for foundation, what seemed to be just a small stone wound up to be the perfect ornament to this area.

One of the rooms is used to retain both the swimming pool and the top terrace, and its roof, in turn, is used as an outdoor lounge. Cross drafts due to its location were solved with a wind chimney that works with temperature changes. This room only received the light filtered through the top of the trees, so advantage was taken from the adjacent location of the swimming pool to create a window, and thus allow light in causing a constant movement effect when it is sieved by water. This window has been a perfect means to take memorable photographs under the water.

So that little maintenance would be required, the outside was finished in polished concrete with color incorporated to it, which wears out as the house in turn does and protects it from water. The inside consists of plaster painted in white, and the rest is wood, polished concrete, clear glass and natural aluminum.

As part of the commitment from the client and ColectivoMX to ecology, the house design includes a system to reuse grey water for watering, solar cells for electricity, ceiling fans instead of air conditioning, an emergency gas generator and a swimming pool with saltwater managed through solar panels.

This project has been welcomed by the neighbors and architects community. The jury of the 10^th Bienniale of Mexican Architecture, the Federation of Architecture Colleges of the Mexican Republic, the National Academy of Architecture, and the National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULTA) agreed to award “Casa Shelly” with a silver medal as the best of its kind.

ColectivoMX expects that projects like this will trigger passive consumption of energy in weekend houses in the peninsula, making new project developers aware and paving the way for a new generation of architects committed to their job and environment.

Architecture: ColectivoMX
Project Leader: Javier Gutiérrez Toscano
Design Team: Antonio Plá, Fátima Chavarría, Ulrike Margull
Structural Engineering and Facilities: Gerson Huerta
Construction: ColectivoMX
Location: Cabo del Este, Baja California Sur, México
Area: 312 m2
Price: 280,000 USD
Project Date: 2008
Client: David and Shelly Martínez
Photographs: ColectivoMX, David Martínez

Pineda Covalin is a very successful Mexican Design company. Their focus is in adaptation of traditional Mexican patterns into fabrics to create scarves, pashminas, ties, purses, wallets and more.

Their store in San Jose del Cabo called for a renovation, as they wanted to balance between function and visual impact. Once the functional part was improved, architects at fabriKG could give attention to details that made the space not only a store enclosure.

The project concept is set up as a very minimalistic and monochromatic space to ensure to give as much exposure as possible to the products of Pineda Covalin. Monochromatic concept gets place with the black façade contrasting to the white internal walls. As a distinctive and warm touch to the store a wood countertop/vitrina as the central furniture piece is added, which distributes the circulation around the 30 m2 store.

The walls work as shelves all around the space. In order to protect products and fabric from the warm desertic sun of Los Cabos, artists thickened the external walls and thus created a gentle protective shadow. Light has a significant impact to the store at night, when the black façade, white interiors and colorful products work as a big and attractive urban lamp. The store is attracting attention to pedestrians who enjoy afternoon walks in San Jose’s colorful and artful city center, not only with its attractive products, designs and colors, but also with impactful design and architecture of the store itself.

Architects: fabriKG

Location: San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur, México
Project Team: Gonzalo Elizarraras, Benjamin Scharf, Tom Janssens, Gerardo Patiño
Area: 35m2
Owner: Leticia Klein
Engineer: Alvaro Baez
General Contractors: South Baja
Project Year: 2008
Construction Year: 2009
Photographs: Fernando Garcia Fregoso
Contact: www.fabrikg.com email: info@fabrikg.com

We are repeating ourselves when we say that we love Baja’s warm winters. But, we admit, we do miss winter, cold and snow as well (from time to time). For a week or so would be marvelous to put on several layers of clothes, hats, gloves and dig into the snow. Or maybe take on an exotic journey to Norway by boat. And not just any boat, but Spa Boat.

As seen in Wallpaper:

Combining two of our favourite pursuits in one luxury package, the Spa Boat – designed by Norway-based, Finnish architect Sami Rintala – brings an added dimension to the standard spa weekend.

Taking a stripped-down 1950s fishing boat as the skeleton of his project, Rintala adapted the bare woods and curving walls as integral design elements of his vision.

The depths of the hold, where tons of North Sea fish were once stored, now plays host to a wood-clad spa area – featuring a Turkish Hammam (complete with the obligatory steambath, bath tub and hot tiles), Zen lounge with wood burning fireplace and a sauna surrounded by panoramic windows.

The Scandi-inspired luxury continues on deck, with a hot tub designed for mid-winter Aurora Borealis gazing, whilst a seven meter-high diving board provides release for those with more frenetic agendas.

Boasting three, well-proportioned guest bedrooms, the Spa Boat can play host to as many as twelve guests at a time, whilst the on-board kitchen – which brings to mind many a pared-down Scandinavian eatery – comes complete with a host of professional chefs.

Moored in the Arctic city of Tromsø and unveiled at the end of last year, the Spa Boat offers an authentic – if wintry – take on the spa experience.

In the center of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the Re.evolution lounge+bar is a project that you’d most probably be seeing in Miami or LA than in a touristy Mexican beach resort; it provides some fresh air to the city nightlife, and has also unintentionally triggered a micro urban renewal in the neighborhood.

Cabo San Lucas, a popular vacation spot and one of the places in Mexico with the highest density of high-end resorts, faces two public images; on one side, a place of highest luxury and style, visible trough resort catalogues and sponsored promotions, while creating a ‘vision’ of ‘traditional’ Mexico with palapas, colorful taco stands and mariachis. On the other side the town of Cabo San Lucas in its mere heart reveals dusty streets, poverty, cheep local labor and poor urban image due to the negligence of urban planners.

The “Re.evolution lounge+bar” project called for the remodeling of two different commercial spaces, joining them together into a restaurant and a lounge bar in downtown Cabo San Lucas. a10 studio saw in this project the opportunity to comply to the clients needs and transform the two existing ‘rough’ spaces into a comfortable and contemporary space for a restaurant and a lounge bar, seeking to stand out from the expensive palapa-like bar that seems to be the general aesthetic for businesses in the area.

The project explored the redefinition of the “ground”, the manipulation of the ground surface, transforming an element that carries a fixed code into an active field, complex and mutant. The ambiguity between the surface and the space, between bi-dimension and tri-dimension, is perhaps one of the constants of the project as an alternative to the contrast between the ground and the architectural object.

The surface here is not only the envelope of space, but also what defines it, as it emerges in between the both of them as a close relationship. By exploring the ambiguity between ground and envelope, instead of opposing them as is commonly done, a10 studio exploited the indeterminacy that exists between them. With this, the architecture is not anymore just a vertical and active entity built on top of the horizontal and passive flat surface of the ground. Here the ground mutates into an active surface, a plane constructed from where architecture emerges as an unlikely fluctuating figure.

The plan of the project – a restaurant wing (together with kitchen and services) and a bar wing, which are interconnected and function as a whole, but which can also be isolated and functioning independently as individual spaces if needed – is solved with a spatial loop with transgressive trajectories, with knots and crosses, links and virtual links, as well as overlapping messages which are attractors of activity intended to provoke multiple situations (junctions seeming impossible suddenly become possible) in open and closed spatial agencies at once. All these elements make the space feel like a single sleek surface folding into each other, the factor that enables lights to create different ambient, atmospheres and feelings with a mere change of color of the light.

One of the visible, striking and as proved, publicly very acceptable elements of the Re.evolution lounge+bar is its terrace. Its idea derives from Mediterranean terraces, where the terrace becomes a main space of the project. Taking advantage of the Cabo San Lucas weather with average 350 sunny days yearly, the shape of the sidewalk and limits of the lot, the project allowed a10 studio to pull the facade away from the sidewalk and generate an enjoyable open space still part of the bar, and which is now one of the favorite spots where people hang out, see and let themselves be seen.

_original state of two adjacent business spaces, prior to construction

The project deployed several constraints as low and non-equal walls of two adjacent business spaces, time to delivery and budget limits among others. These were successfully over passed with creative use of locally available materials as for example PVC water pipes, used to create a shade at a terrace, etc. With a budget of $ 50,000 USD and 3 months time from original idea to completion, including design, remodeling, construction, interior design and the opening, a10 studio created an attractive and contemporary entertainment spot which style you’ll most likely be seeing in the popular areas of Miami than of downtown Cabo San Lucas.

_reconstruction almost completed

The Re.evolution lounge+bar is creating a lot of buzz bringing style, contemporary architecture and design to downtown Cabo, and furthermore creating a micro urban renewal after neighbors realized the added value of putting design to work for them and their businesses, plenty of them have started painting their facades, or even planning to remodel their very own businesses improving the overall image of this part of the city.

As Mariano Arias-Diez, principal of a10studio says: “This are the kind of things you hardly realize when you do a project, but then, when architectural ideas mix with the everyday rationalization and use of the city by its dwellers and flaneurs, great things can be accomplished”.

The project allowed a contemporary space for local entertainment and nightlife, but also triggered a much-needed evolution of the urban image of the very heart of still rural Cabo San Lucas.

PROJECT DATA:

architectural project: a10studio

principal in charge: Mariano Arias-Diez

type: commercial, restaurant and lounge bar

location: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

area: 198.50 m2

project year: 2009

date of completion: September 2009

client: JDFA S. DE R.L.

time to completion: 3 months

status: completed

CONSULTANTS:

graphics and logos: LA76 strategic design

structural engineer: Ing. Jacobo Perez-Valle / OBRA Metalica

lighting design: a10studio

audio+acoustics: Daniel Bradley / Expo Cabo

general contractor: Fernando Hernandez / AMP

windows + glass: Vidrios San Marcos, CSL

PHOTOS:

construction photos: a10studio

final images: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design

Contact: a10 studio, Mariano Arias-Diez: info@a10studio.net,

www.a10studio.net

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