Excerpt: ‘Casa en los Cocos’ by Ludwig Godefroy is a project that consists of a series of fragmented pavilions inspired by pre-Hispanic architecture and organised around a water mirror and a swimming pool. The residence is a socially focused project with a negative void space defining the border between public and private areas. An open central agora connects private spaces, creating a convergent hub for social life.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Casa en los Cocos is located in the south of the historic center of Mérida – Yucatán, in Mexico. The design of the project comes from the proportion of the land itself, 70 mts long x 8 mts wide. The narrow proportion of the land creates a strong vanishing point effect entering the site. The project responds to this perspective crossing from side to side, materializing it with water guiding everywhere through the whole house.
The project consists of a series of fragmented pavilions, inspired by pre hispanic architecture and organized around a water mirror and a swimming pool. Two bedroom pavilions with their private gardens are placed on both sides of this perspective, in order to create a big protected void at the very center.
Casa en los Cocos is looking for a strong sensation of interiority on the outside, to let the garden embrace people and each space of the project. The central living area pavilion, the social part of the house, floats above this garden, widely open, letting the air breeze cross.
Casa en los Cocos is structured around its negative void space, which is becoming as important as its positive pavilions built space. The contrast between open and closed defines also the border between public and private areas, a house as an open central agora connecting all the private spaces together. This is the heart of the project where social life converges.
Taking the land proportion as a starting point for the design, and creating this intimate central agora, the whole ground floor with its garden is becoming a large strolling area. Facade isn’t needed anymore. The garden is the living area, inviting people to a meditation walk through.
The project is getting rid of the unnecessary to focus exclusively on elemental elements, towards simplicity. This research of simplicity is leading the design to a clean and abstract architecture, composed entirely of massive materials such as concrete, wood and stone. All those materials are able to get old and look better under the action of time, rather than getting damaged.
The concept of time is becoming part of the architecture. The time as if it would be a material, following the purpose of stepping back to this old and simple idea to let the “patina of time” be part of the project.
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