em-estudio realizes its ‘la extraviada’ house along the hillside over mexico‘s quiet and majestic mermejita beach. facing the pacific ocean and totally surrounded by nature, the house offers a retreat among the oaxaca heat. the design team celebrates the view of the sea and the cross-flow of air that keeps the spaces fresh. it is a project that does not fight its natural context due to its proximity to the sea — the weather, the salt, the sun and the humidity, but uses it to its advantage, making it an essential part of the design.
the em-estudio designed la extraviada house seeks to integrate with the hill and adapt to its topography. the clustered volumes are gradually discovered as the visitor ascends or descends the mountain, suggesting a continuation of the rocky landscape. the stone volumes, interrupted by large wooden shutters, are projected one over the other, adapting to the slope of the land, generating terraces and overhangs that provide shade and let the wind flow. the interior is accessed through the highest point, where a stairs lead to a stone vestibule-patio. the house has four rooms, two integrated into the main block and two that can function as independent studios, since they have their own access on the lower part of the land and a kitchen and a private fresh water pool each.
constructing ‘la extraviada,’ em-estudio makes use of primarily locally-sourced materials. this palette includes carpentry of macuil wood, structure of guapinol wood, and stone from nearby quarries in patios and stairs. the roof of the main pavilion is finished with flat clay tiles, while the walls are finished with a polished cement mixed with brown pigments. the walls and roof seek to blend the architecture with the colors of the surrounding context, until the patina of time becomes an integral part of the image of the project where the weathering gives character to the volumes. the ever-present concrete allows the architecture to emerge from such a steep slope, offering an ideal canvas to be transformed in its appearance with the passage of nature and time.
project info:
project title: la extraviada house | @la_extraviada_mazunte | @la_extraviada_estudios
architecture: em-estudio
lead designer: ivan esqueda martínez
interior design: gala sánchez-renero
drawings: berenice galindo
structure: grupo acero y concreto
engineering: ing. miguel ángel márquez trujillo
carpentry: rigoberto velásquez pacheco
master builder: josé noé pulido lópez
photography: diego padilla magallanes, nin solis, ivan esqueda martínez, emanuel velásquez
year: 2020
