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Architects: em-estudio
- Area: 486 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Ivan Esqueda Martínez, Mara Sánchez Renero, Diego Padilla Magallanes
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Manufacturers: Bandido , David Pompa, La Metropolitana, Mosaicos Oaxaca, Namuh, Porcelanosa Grupo, Provenance, Smeg
Text description provided by the architects. The Extraviada is a fish that became a dream that became a project that became a house overlooking the sea. Looking at the Pacific Ocean, La Extraviada is a house designed for vacationing in Mazunte, Oaxaca. It is built on the hillside facing the tranquil and majestic Mermejita beach, completely surrounded by nature.
The first stage of the project, consisting of the main house and two independent studios, was completed in early 2020. In the summer of 2021, the second stage began with the construction of Casita Sepia and Casita Erizo, which extend towards the lower part of the land and were completed in January 2023.
The project seeks to blend in with the hill, adapting to its topography, where the spaces are gradually revealed as you go up or down the mountain. The volume emerges from the overlapping of stone volumes, which contain large wooden windows and project one onto the other, adapting to the slope of the land, creating terraces and cantilevers that provide shade and accompany the wind currents, creating an image of balanced stones on the hillside.
Being located at the bottom of the mountain, both constructions have three levels that adapt to the slope of the land, without blocking the views of the existing buildings or between them, rising to see the sea and seeking the passage of air with cross ventilation that brings freshness to the spaces.
The architecture of the cottages does not fight against the nature of their context and the wear and tear caused by their proximity to the sea, salt, sun, and humidity, but on the contrary, it uses them to its advantage, making them an essential part of the design, seeking that the patina of time and the imprint of nature be an integral part of the project's image, where weathering gives character to the volumes.
Most of the materials used in the construction come from the region, such as macuil wood in the carpentry and stone from nearby quarries in the walls of the property's access. As in the first stage of the project, the walls are finished with polished cement mixed with coffee-colored pigments, seeking to blend the volumes with the range of tones in the environment, in addition to integrating black pigment in the foundations and in the walls of the courtyards, inspired by the black sand of Mermejita beach.
Sepia and Erizo have the same dimensions and both preserve the existing module of the project, where each window measures 4.5 meters wide, but each one responds to its location on the mountain. In Casita Erizo, the access is through a private interior courtyard where a freshwater pool is located, and from where the social area is accessed. From the courtyard, an exterior staircase rises to the bedroom with views of the treetops and the sea in the background. The staircase continues to wrap around the volume of the cottage until it reaches the third level where the terrace is located, with a light roof of wood and otate, from which the mountain and the ocean can be seen.
Further up, Casita Sepia rises following the slope of the mountain. Its social area is located on the ground floor, which opens onto a private interior courtyard. An exterior staircase leads to the bedroom, which has unobstructed views of the sea and continues to the terrace on the third level, which is connected to a private pool on the mountainside via a bridge.
The access to the cottages is from the lower part of the land from a path at beach level. There is a parking area and a service area surrounded by stone walls and shaded by palm trees. The staircase carved into the mountain that leads up to the cottages continues to the main house, located at the highest part of the land, thus connecting all the spaces. Casita Sepia and Casita Erizo complete the composition of volumes that descend down the mountain slope and are part of La Extraviada, a young project that will continue to dream and is not afraid of the passage of time.
