We were asked to generate a collection of new areas for an existing house with a very restricted budget:
Terrace, exterior living room, exterior dinning area, exercise area/gym, a studio, and a scenic overlook.

Another requirement of the clients was to use as less “concrete & cement” as possible. To link this requirements we based our proposal in the use of vernacular materials such as local stones, dirt, natural light, water, the sound of waves, the thoughts and memory…

The proposal materialize by using only 3 rammed earth walls and 2 latticed walls to define all the required new areas. All flooring was located in place without the use of cement, with just sand to fill and tight the gaps in between them, same way as vernacular architecture has done it for centuries. The natural environment and weather of the site was also a huge inspiration for the solution of the project.

We seek for emotion and authenticity in the proposal by the use of traditional and vernacular materials. The physical intimacy of proximity to the earth by the use of site’s dirt to build the project walls tries to reveal the spirituality of the elementary matter and the universality of vernacular materials, supported and expressed through the silence of the forms.

On the landscaping we seek to organize a vast amount of land inside the lot with a minimum use of elements, still paying attention to the poetics of the lights, shades, textures and colors of Baja and specially of the town of Todos Santos.

“In a world swamped with digital images, the return to the physical, tactile humility of primary materials becomes a pilgrimage to the essential sources of construction, a path of knowledge that drains the superfluous and elevates through descent.”
-Luis Fernandez-Galiano