Spanish architects Cadaval & Sola-Morales recently completed this house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Mexico.
Details from the architects:
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The main goal of the project was to create a low-cost and low-maintenance house that realised all the structural qualities of the material in which it was built to its full potential.
The concrete house has two big cantilevers (five and three meters each) that balance to each other, creating a main central space. Such articulation of shapes and spaces, define the section that is at the same time the silhouette of the house.
The design takes forward the idea of low-cost/low-maintenance, and applies this strategy to all the materials involved in the construction, while pushing to the limit both their technical and tectonic qualities: floor, windows, railings, etc., are done re-using materials that were previously used for pouring the concrete and for the rest of the construction process.
Perhaps, it is the space generated within inner and outer space what makes the house special. The house was designed to operate fully opened; it is then when the cantilever, this huge threshold, is fully occupied and becomes the central space of the house.
The house was awarded one of the 5 young architects honorable mentions (under 40 yr) at the Spanish Bienal of Architecture and were one of the 25th finalist including among others Nouvel’s Agbar Tower, Rogers’s Terminal 4, Miralles Santa Caterina Market or Chipperfield’s Americas Cup Building. We were also the youngest office awarded.
Eduardo Cadaval & Clara Solà-Morales
This is the office profile:
Cadaval & Sola-Morales was founded in New York in 2003 and moved to Barcelona in 2005. The office operates like a laboratory in which research and development are seen as an important element of the design process. The mandate of the firm is to create intelligent, design solutions at many different scales, from large scale projects to small buildings, from objects to city fractions.
Currently Cadaval & Sola-Morales is developing and building projects in New York, Spain and Mexico. In 2007 the office was considered by Wallpaper Magazine as one of the 10th world`s best young offices.
Eduardo Cadaval (age 31. Mexico City 1975) is a licensed architect. He received his BA from the National University of Mexico (with special honors) and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University. Before founding Cadaval & Sola-Morales, he worked for Abalos & Herreros and Rafael Moneo in Madrid, and for Field Operations in New York.
Cadaval has taught at Harvard’s Career Discovery program, at the Boston Architectural Center and at Calgary’s University Barcelona program. He was awarded with the Young Creators grant from the Mexican government. Currently he teaches urbanism at the Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona.
Clara Sola-Morales (age 31. Barcelona 1975) is a licensed architect with a degree on Architecture from the Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, ETSAB, and holds a Master in Architecture (MarchII) from Harvard University. Prior to establishing Cadaval & Sola-Morales she worked at TEN Arquitectos NY in charge of the design of the Aztec exhibitions at New York’s and Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum.
She also worked at Harvard University Center for Urban Development Studies and has collaborated with several offices in Europe and the US. She has taught at Harvard’s Career Discovery program and at the Boston Architectural Center. She has her own practice in jewel design.
Below: location
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
wicked! XD
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Amazing simplicity!
Well done!
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Magic section! And the interiors look tremendous. Being from colder climbs I can imagine how much of a relief the shady undercrofts must be. The processes and arrival of the materials involved seems extremely thoughtful and thorough.
Depending on what you want from your home however, it could be percieved as looming and a little self important amongst it’s company.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
cool shape..awesome materials&color composition..the hammocks under the cantilever are wicked!m not sure bout the ones in the tower though
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Have to say the Spanish and the Japanese produce the best houses in the world today… simple, legible, yet incredible spatial articulations.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Beautiful.
Makes me think Corbusier was right all along!
Now if only it spilled out onto the beach…
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Is this house in Puerto Escondido? Does anybody know? it looks a little like the coast at that point. I’m not sure how comfortable that top would be at any time of the day except high noon . . . Nice design thought . . .
April 24th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Broootal. Just needs some privacy.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am
great project…
the details become negligeable when you have a minimal impact footprint.
thank god the new generation of architects are more conscious than the older egoistic architects of capitalism.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am
the upstairs hammocks are nice
April 24th, 2008 at 10:12 am
@pop: what has egoism to do with capitalism? Do you even know what capitalism means?
Great project by the way.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Are these 3D renderings?
April 24th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
@Olivier: please read the first line of the text. It says: “Spanish architects Cadaval & Sola-Morales recently completed this house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Mexico”. So i think it’s a real building you’re looking at
April 24th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
why do i even bother trying to resist falling in love with exposed concrete!
excellent project!
April 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
great work.. well done..
April 25th, 2008 at 4:03 am
i really love this piece of architecture… i featured it on january 18 of 08….. WHERE WERE YOU DEZEEN???? haha.. anyho.. i love that money was on their mind.. and most of the furniture (beautiful hammocks and chairs) were built by locals… amazing project..
hey deseen.. im active.. and willing to get involved with you guys.. i love your features.. yes.. this is a sleezy offer.. haha. nitenite
April 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
@J and @Olivier and also @DEZEEN: “Spanish architects Cadaval & Sola-Morales” Eduardo Cadaval is actually a mexican architect living in Barcelona, and his wife Clara Sola-Morales is spanish, they have contact info in both Mexico City and Barcelona.
@Gabe… this is a mexican/spanish designed house….
@EKEBY yes its in Pto. Escondido
@all it rocks!
April 26th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
@j - you’re a mean person, so it seams.
April 27th, 2008 at 3:38 am
strong, resourceful and bold.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:08 am
i think i want it.now.hot.
April 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Looks ok.
What is new about it? It is a 2D extruded nice profile. That’s it !!
It lacks imagination ! It looks nice because it has a simple form in concrete, but it doesn’t mean this is good! Do you need to add red details (in furniture) to make it more interesting? Do you need this furniture to make it better?. Can you do a building that stands for itself?
Even judging from the photos, the details are not properly solved. See the top frame of the door under the steps on the ground floor. Imagine how the details must be in real. For God’s sake why are you using Ikea furniture in a supposedly new, trendy, cuting edge architecture?
Has he studied at Harvard? Any relation to SolaMorales the theorist? If so, this proves that money, degrees, contacts can never beat good thinkers.
Le Corbusier was great, but trying to do like him will not help you.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
tab….
you are probably THE architect and you own THE imagination?
realize stuff better like that…show it….and write again….
_nice house with nice section thoughts!
grüsse.
koru
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
it’s like an ugly girl with a nice body. Not pretty good up close, but has its fun. I really don’t like the boxy kind of insertion in the site when you look at it from the front. It seemes it tries to be too high.
Looking from behind, though, its amazing and it’s got a really nice section.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Soy de Mexico
He visitado este lugar, algunas veces y conoci este proyecto de muy cerca es realmente interesante, la utilizacion de los materiales, y la compocision volumetrica son parametros que condicionan una estadia agradable en el lugar, cabe mencionar por que se abrio al interior si tiene un paisaje formidable…
Im from Mexico
I have visited this place, often and meet this proyect of closely and is really interesting, the utilization of the materials, and the volumetric compocision they are parameters that determine an great stay in the place, it is necessary to know way the home is opened to the interior if it, has a formidable landscape…
March 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
This design seems to meld perfectly the concepts of “bedroom” and “garage”.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Doing things so basic and raw is risky and I believe takes skill and talent to pull it off, but the rewards are high. I reckon this is pretty damn close.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:35 am
The best thing about this project would be the shape and materials, I feel the space is the one in doubt, so much waste a think on the hammocks…don’t you think….but overall nice.