Eight Elements
Sculptural Form
Every building was modelled by hand in clay before it was drawn. The forms curve in all three dimensions and are responsive to climate and site. They must be seen from several directions before they resolve, and inhabited to be known, because the inside does not follow from what can be seen outside.
Choreographed Movement
The property is a sequence of choreographed forms that places the guest at the centre, as the dancerwithin a landscape of inhabitable sculpture. Stairs, thresholds and paths stage the body through the site: the Caracol Escalera spirals one way, then the other, then runs straight for seven risers to the balcony.
The Garden Structure
Buildings and planting were shaped together rather than one being set into the other. Trees were kept and built around; the Pergola sits at the centre of the garden with palms in front of its arches, so that structure and foliage are read as a single thing.
Yucatecan craft and heritage
Chukum finish, pasta tile floors, mampostería walls and the Mayan arch belong to the Yucatán and are used here as they have always been used. The colonial building on the street was restored and became the gallery. New work meets old wall directly, without disguise.
Monolithic built-in furniture
Most of the furniture is poured as part of the building: beds, divans, counters, shelves and benches emerge from the same chukum surface as the walls. Nothing was placed in the rooms afterwards to soften them; the room and its furniture are one continuous piece.
Handmade objects
Every object in the guest houses is an original work. David recontextualised simple PVC tubing into light fixtures and handcrafted the cedro doors and wooden furniture; Beth made the ceramic chandeliers, wall sconces, vases and dishware, and the paintings and sculptures that accent the rooms.
Water
Water is given a form of its own. A small holding pool sits above the Cascada, hidden behind the sculptural forms. It overflows into several channels formed into the concrete, sending some of the water down the right-hand wall and the rest over the top of the cylinder.
Climate as form
Climate comes first and produces its own language. Few openings face north, where the sun is brutal at this latitude. Volados shade nearly every window so direct light never reaches the glass, and they carry rainwater off the domed roofs. Their placement is a hidden logic that resolves as visual order. Openings are set by orientation rather than by elevation, and glass block insets carry colour into the rooms as the day turns.