Casa Numa is a sustainable vacation and rental house on Holbox Island, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It gradually reveals its essence through a frontal lattice that allows the eyes of the observer to pass through, in an intimate reserved tour and in a playful way, the discovery of spaces and voids. At night that sobriety is transformed into a play of reflections and light through the lattice that undoubtedly makes it a visually striking object, the building as a lantern in context. Casa Numa becomes an integrated sculptural object rooted in the Island through its materiality and in the repetition of vertical elements it alludes to the formality of the essence of the tree of life.
Casa Numa it is made up of two levels, on the first level there is a small dining room with a full bathroom and the master bedroom with a terrace and poo. On the second floor we find two bedrooms with a full bathroom connected with an exterior staircase, it is also provided with a terrace on the top floor.
The house it’s built entirely of coconut palm wood supported on sapote tree piles that so as not to impact the sandy soil of the island. The palm is considered the tree of life, since human existence could be sustained with everything that is profitable from it. It is a natural insulating material that offers a pleasant climate due to its thermal inertia, allowing less energy consumption due to cooling.
In Quintana Roo and Tabasco, there is an abundance of coconut palms, some are thrown away by hurricanes and also because they had a short natural life, getting old quickly. In Mexico, coconut palm wood is used in an artisanal way, there is very little housing production with it despite being number 12 in natural palm production. In the southeast of Mexico, traditional housing was based on coconut palm, unfortunately it was lost causing the lack of awareness of this integral construction system.
No type of paint or ceramic pieces were used, all finishes are with chukum a natural material form the area, and soil aggregates from the site (white sand), reducing the carbon footprint of its construction.
Holbox Island is a delicate mangrove ecosystem, which has been abused by commercial construction. Casa Numa seeks to be an example that with common palm it is possible to generate architecture, employment and the use of a raw material that is available to everyone. We hope that this construction system could be used in the region for the construction of comfortable, decent, environmentally friendly and low-cost housing.
The time taken to build a wooden house is less than that of a house of the same size with a traditional construction system. Casa Numa was structurally built in three months, taking another quarter for interior fittings and finishes.
Casa Numa sprouts from the bowels of the island, recognizing itself as part of it.
Team:
Lead Architect: Susana López González
Collaborators: arch. Felipe Díaz / arch. Alexis Hernández
Photographer: Miguel Ángel Vázquez Calanchini
Construction: RED ARQUITECTOS
