natural design Archives | Visi https://visi.co.za/tag/natural-design/ SA's most beautiful magazine Mon, 06 Sep 2021 14:32:17 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://visi.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cropped-ICO-32x32-Black-1-1-32x32.png natural design Archives | Visi https://visi.co.za/tag/natural-design/ 32 32 Cool Spaces: El Perdido Hotel by Estudio ALA https://visi.co.za/cool-spaces-el-perdido-hotel-by-estudio-ala/ Mon, 12 Jul 2021 06:00:00 +0000 https://visi.co.za/?p=599018 El Perdido Hotel by Estudio ALA is a permeated structure that counters cultural corrosion by emulating the local area's way of life and honouring Baja California Sur's historical roots and material culture.

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WORDS Cheri Morris IMAGES Iwaan Baan


El Perdido Hotel by Estudio ALA is a permeated structure that counters cultural corrosion by emulating the local area’s way of life and honouring Baja California Sur’s historical roots and material culture.

Located outside the small agricultural town of El Pescadero, El Perdido Hotel is a compound of vanished boundaries between dwellings and lush surrounds just 800 metres from the Pacific Ocean amidst farmlands of basil, chillies, tomatoes and strawberries. Its design features traditional construction techniques and materials: rammed-earth walls and thatched roofs typical of the southern point of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. It is at once an ode to the past and a suggested blueprint for the future; centring customs of old and indigenous craftsmanship.

el perdido hotel

The rooms are not combined into a single building. Instead, guest quarters are dotted throughout the site, flowering from a central communal area that is free from walls and houses the lobby, restaurant, a sunken conversation pit with a water feature and a chapel. Smaller outbuildings feature timber-hewn roofs blanketed in thatch. Here, guests suites afford the feeling of standalone mini homes as opposed to hotel rooms.

Interiors continue the dialogue between habitat and inhabitants: exposed timber frames and hand-made wood finishes harmonise while a tall, hourglass-shaped structure makes the perfect lookout point for inhaling rolling landscapes and the white-horsed Pacific Ocean.

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Check out Casona Sforza by Alberto Kalach of Taller de Arquitectura X.

h/t: dezeen.com

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Cool Spaces: Casona Sforza by Alberto Kalach https://visi.co.za/casona-sforza-by-alberto-kalach/ Fri, 14 May 2021 06:00:00 +0000 https://visi.co.za/?p=596806 Located on the shores of Oaxaca, Mexico Casona Sforza by Alberto Kalach of Taller de Arquitectura X appears a sandcastle risen from the natural landscape; a romantic composition of vaults, volumes and luxuriant essentials amidst mangroves and rolling waves unhindered by artifice.

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WORDS Cheri Morris IMAGES Alex Krotkov


Located on the shores of Oaxaca, Mexico Casona Sforza by Alberto Kalach of Taller de Arquitectura X appears a sandcastle risen from the natural landscape; a romantic composition of vaults, volumes and luxuriant essentials amidst mangroves and rolling waves unhindered by artifice.

Mexican architect Alberto Kalach, whose career has focused on creating site-specific works that complement their natural environment, aptly designed Casona Sforza‘s interior and exterior spaces to appear as if they were carved from the coastal sand. Outside, three volumes made up of ten vaults make arched rests for the sky. The volumes precede an azure moon of a swimming pool and gaze onto the Pacific Ocean.

Casona Sforza

Inside, the earth-toned theme continues in partitions, coatings and organic shapes. Concrete and wooden beams divide spaces to afford an interplay of heights – single, double and triple. Each affords interaction with the surroundings: temperature, solar path and ocean acoustics.

Furnishings feature a treasure trove of local artisan crafts: rugs from Teotitlán del Valle; textiles from the Oaxaca Valley; hammocks, chairs and curtains from Yucatán and palm lamps from Veracruz. All of which are combined with curious from the Oaxacan mountains made by potters, cabinetmakers, farmers and beekeepers in the Pueblo del Sol workshops – a sustainable production project supported by Casona Sforza.

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Check out its bush equivalent: Sabi Sands Lodge Cheetah Plains.

h/t: archdaily.com

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