2022
MCHAP
Cometa House
Taller |Mauricio Rocha+Gabriela Carrillo|
Santa MarÃa Tonameca, Mexico
June 2019
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Mauricio Rocha Iturbide, Gabriela Carrillo Valadez
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
CLIENT
Carlos Couturier Gaya
PHOTOGRAPHER
Rafael Gamo
OBJECTIVE
The topography generate different levels to provide views of the ocean and the jungle. The use of local materials such as clay floors, different types of stone and wood, concrete and earth characterize the aesthetics and spirit of the house, whose cozy and relaxed atmosphere is of high contrast. On the one hand, the lighting is very dim inside, and on the other, the terraces are areas full of light and wind.
CONTEXT
¨El Cerro Sagrado¨ now converted into an ecological reserve is located in the small town of Mazunte, Oaxaca. This house is located right on this limit, which also accompanies a walk to descend to the beaches of Mazunte and Mermejita. The capricious polygonal of the property is also defined by a series of local rules from the hand of local trees impossible to be replanted and 28 meters of difference in level from the highest point to the lowest point of the property.
Spread over around 900 square meters covered, the project consists of two towers, whose viewpoints allow you to admire the sunrises and sunsets. One of these has an open kitchen on the ground floor and a study-library on the top, while the second has a spa on the ground floor; a room in the middle part and the master bedroom on the upper floor. The rest of the horizontal structures are made up of a series of orthogonal planes that intersect perpendicularly. These intersections made it possible to create space for the spa and an area for hammocks and terraces. The common area is housed under a palapa, with a bar made of clay pieces and a volcanic stone grill-fireplace. Three more rooms hang from a large mud dock and are at the height of the jungle. Below and parallel to it lies an swimming pool.
PERFORMANCE
These planes become open and light platforms that house social spaces or viewpoints and dialogue in high contrast with two towers built with local stone that strategically open to the landscape and the wind and close to the sun's rays and bad weather; they also become viewpoints for sunrises and sunsets on their rooftop.
To conclude, two essential structures built with local wood define the palapa that is the main social space and a second structure hanging under one of the viewpoint planes also built with the same wood ,working under tension and hidden between the fronds of the trees, where the secondary rooms with a closer relationship with the jungle are based.
One of the main searches for this house was to dilute its scale with the changing landscape of the Oaxacan jungle that changes in dry conditions to be a series of bushes and trees with branches to a lush and exuberant jungle in the rainy season. At the same time working with local materials such as wood, clay and stone; and to make use of very few concrete elements that allow to clear the great openings and the vertical structures of the stairs.
Finally, to emphasize on diluting the limits between the roofed spaces and the open spaces, as well as with the vegetal areas that surround all the architectural structures. The house itself is the relationship between the landscape, the topography and the orthogonal structures framing the views to the sea and the jungle.