Casa Maria - by the award winning firm Gaeta Springall Architects - emerges on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Oaxaca, stranded between sand and vegetation just steps fro the beach

The materiality of the houses responds to the site; seeking to present themselves in a subtle and respectful way with the context, as well as to provide structural safety in a seismic place like Oaxaca. The contrast between the hardness of the concrete and the softness of the wood echoes the site that houses them; the concrete becomes the structure and materialization of the volume on site, and the wood becomes the delimiter of the interior space.

The spaces in the houses are undefined throughout the day. Through the movement of the handmade wooden sliding walls, the control of the confined space is almost entirely in the hands of the inhabitant. Both units are divided in two, like a yin and yang figure; half of the house is a gallery in permanent relationship with sounds, light and plants and the other half is interior with the possibility of opening to the outside path.

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