TEPOZTLAN LOUNGE BY CADAVAL & SOLA-MORALES

Tepoztlan, is a small town nestled between rocky cliffs located to the south of Mexico City, 50 kilometers away from the vibrant metropolis.

With its well preserved historic center and wild countryside, Tepoztlan is a town of legends and deep cultural roots that has been appreciated by writers, poets, artists and musicians over many decades, turning it into their hometown or weekend retreat.

Located in this incredible context and surrounded by an astonishing landscape, the Tepoztlan Lounge is the first building completed of a larger project that also includes a series of bungalows of different sizes and designs, which can be rented by years, months or days.

The lounge is set to be a central communal space for leisure in nature, and is located in the perimeter of an incredible lawn; the idiosyncrasy of the project relies on enabling the experience of the carefully manicured lawn while promoting the experience of the wild nature existing in the boundaries of this central space.

The project is a negotiation between interior and exterior, a construction of an in-between condition, an inhabitable threshold, which becomes the main space of the project; the limits between the open and the content space merge to produce a single architectural entity.

The design establishes three separate living quarters designed in accordance to the 3 activities planned; each of them is a set space defined by its use, but also by a very clear and simple architectural container: the first holds an open bar with a kitchenette, together with a couple of restrooms and dressing rooms; the second is a play area for children that can also be used as a reading room when temperatures drop at night; and finally the largest container is the living area, an enclosed, tempered and comfortable space for conversation, TV, etcetera.

But it is the desire to give continuity between these three separate areas where the project is empowered and becomes meaningful; a continuous space, in full contact with the nature but protected from its inclemency is set up not only to expand the enclosed uses, but also to allow new activities to arise.

And it is through the definition of this central space, through the definition of its shape, that the contiguous courtyards are defined; those are as essential to the project as it is the built architecture, and allows constructing as a whole, single spatial experience.

At the same time that the three built containers give continuity to the central space by mans of their use and space, the adjacent patios qualify it, while providing diversity and idiosyncrasy to open space.

The design of the swimming pool is part of this same intervention, and responds to the desire to characterize the spaces; its formalization necessarily resonates the layout of the lounge, while incorporating to its nature the possibility of a multiplicity of ways of using water, and plunging on it.

The building is located as a plinth valuing the views of the mountains. The building wants to be respectful to the existing context, and understands that the vegetation and life at open air are the real protagonist. Two impressive trees that are in place are incorporated within the layout of the lounge, as if they were part of the program itself.

The Tepoztlan Lounge is constructed in concrete not just for being a inexpensive and labor intensive material in Mexico and to minimize its maintenance, but also to expose its structural simplicity and neutrality towards the astonishing nature.

 

Location: Tepoztlán, Morelos, México

Architect: EduardoCadaval & Clara Solà-Morales

Projet Team: Eugenio Eraña Lagos, Tomas Clara, Manuel Tojal

Structural Engineering: Ricardo Camacho de la Fuente

Area: 250 square metres

Year: 2009 - 2012

XIANGSHAWAN DESERT LOTUS HOTEL BY PLAT ARCHITECTS

Lotus Hotel is located in Xiangshawan Desert, 800 kilometers west to Beijing and middle of Ordos and Baotou. The site is facing Hantai River, a branch of Yellow River, and east to Kubuqi Desert that more than 200 kilometers wide.

Due to the restriction by its special geographic condition, PLaT Architects invented a new structural system that fix in fluid sands using only steel panels without the help of concrete or water.

The panels and the supporting skeleton structures are pre-fabricated, and make the base of the building a large container for sands. Thus, the steel panel structure can function as a boat floating on desert that carries the building.

The sands in and out of the structure exert same forces to each other, and thus it is flexibly stabilized. Also, walls are load-bearing structures in order to reduce the pressure on base.

Moreover, architects use local materials in interior design so that people get full experience of desert in Lotus Hotel. For instance, through a series of experiments, they managed to invent a wall-covering material that is made of sands from local desert.

The form of Lotus Hotel not only blends in the desert, but also exhibits a power of the environment and itself. Architects used the traditional Chinese idea of “Zhen”, which is, in simple words, the art of repeating same elements.

Rotation of squares in a same angle creates triangles in the process, and made the form stronger. In consideration of structure, shading and wind, architects integrated function, form and landscape, resulting in a form of lotus.

Lotus Hotel is only a part of Xiangshawan Desert planning. There will be more such as sustainable tourism in desert, and developing more desert architecture.

PLaT Architects is targeting for net-zero sustainable architecture that generates electricity and water in its own system enough for supply.

 









Location: Xiangshawan Desert, China

Architects: PLaT Architects

Completion Date: March, 2013

Area: 30,000 sqm

Photographs: Courtesy of PLaT Architects

WADI RESORT BY OPPENHEIM ARCHITECTURE

Chad Oppenheim literally sculpts the existing desert rock forming luxurious lodges adding a new meaning to the word minimal. A revolutionary way of inhabiting the landscape using the existing geological geometries of the rock to devise the form.

“International “green” architect Chad Oppenheim sets a new benchmark for design and ecological sensitivity with the Wadi Resort—located in Wadi Rum, Jordan, set for completion in 2014. 

Oppenheim Architecture + Design (OAD) beat out a global competition and will execute an unprecedented project comprised of 47 desert lodges, setting forth a future primitive experience for the avid globetrotter, an hour and a half outside of Petra, the ancient city of the Nebataeans carved into the desert rock.

Oppenheim’s winning proposal set out to reinterpret the way society deals with surrounding nature by taking full advantage of the mystical valley where desert sand meets desert stone. The project merges silently with its wondrous setting, exploiting and enhancing the natural beauty of the desert to establish accommodations that are uniquely elemental and luxurious.

Dramatically situated the lodges and villas in their various incarnations; are all about a visceral connection to culture and place. The resulting experience is a revolutionary notion of opulence that is intentionally reduced to what is essential.

The structure of the lodges will be carved into the sandstone cliffs, utilizing the existing geological geometries of the rock to devise the form. Other structures are comprised of rammed earth and cement mixed with the local red sand. The minimal yet powerful gestures of the architecture both built and carved serves to create harmony, and balance while framing and amplifying the surroundings. 

The interior and exterior are deliberately blurred establishing maximum impact with minimum effort. Inspired by the primordial, Oppenheim used his expertise in sustainable design to create passive means of cross ventilation, taking full advantage of the natural cooling effect of the rocks, and proper positioning allowing the project to minimize energy consumption and maximize comfortable healthy living.

Great care has been given to utilizing local materials as well as various water conservation measures for both human and site irrigation to establish a relatively closed system of harvesting rain water in subterranean cisterns and re-harvesting grey/black water though a living machine of botanical and biological nature. All systems and services will be completely integral to the design.”