Name: Casa Cal
Architects: José Alfonso Quiñones, BAAQ’
Location: Oaxaca
Size: 657 Square Meters
Completed: 2016
Located in the coastal seaside community of Santa Elena, Casa Cal is a vacation home and one of six homes in the neighborhood. Casa Cal’s design takes advantage of the existing foundation and structure of a previous project that was never finished.
The development features two staggered rows of three houses each, in order to optimize the ocean views. This ensured the native vegetation was preserved and used as a natural barrier between each home, adding to the privacy.
Traditionally, the ground floor is used as common space while the upper floors are generally the private areas of the home. In Santa Elena, this model was inverted, in order to take full advantage of the ocean views. Here, the roof top is used as the common areas featuring the pool and lookout point.
The homes were also designed like this in order to take advantage of the architecture through the climate. To keep the living areas comfortable, they were kept under the slab of the upper level and the large palapa, which was made with natural materials and casts a shadow, making the upper floor habitable and keeping the terrace floor and bedrooms cooler. Additionally, the interiors use wood applied in light sliding walls while the exterior facade is a white wall with small openings made by the brick layout, giving each room privacy and natural cross ventilation.
Photos: Edmund Sumner
Collaborators: Inca Hernández and Guillermo Mauricio
Developers: Fernando Ramírez and Alejandro Sanjines
Palapa design: Alejandro Sanjines
Interiors: DECADA / Lucía Corredor, Cecilia Tena