Located off the desert coast of Los Cabos, Casa Escondida is a project of multiplicities. Mediating between complex and competing demands imposed by climate, program, and neighborhood regulations, the design overlays strategies of disguise and duality to construct the concept of a house within a house.
The discreet exterior displays a compliant structure, conforming to the requisite roof type, limited apertures, and stone cladding stipulated by community guidelines, while inside, architectural freedoms of form and materiality unfold. Carved out of the house’s conceptual massing, a composition of voids creates a second, protected exterior space; a courtyard covered by skylights that tilt and taper at different angles to produce variations in daylighting and natural ventilation. Living and sleeping rooms encircle the courtyard across two floors, weaving together and through the central void to connect the house’s interiors with the space and shade of the cloistered breezeway.
Beneath the exterior’s cloak of cantera stone, the house’s structure and interior are composed of board-formed concrete, creating a thick shell of thermal mass that protects against tropical storm winds and helps isolate exterior temperatures. Openings of mixed shapes and sizes create visual and thermal connections between interior spaces and the outdoors.
