Tepoztlán Lounge

Tepoztlan, is a small town nestled between rocky cliffs located to the south of Mexico City,
50 kilometers away from the vibrant metropolis. With its well preserved historic center and
wild countryside, Tepoztlan is a town of legends and deep cultural roots that has been
appreciated by writers, poets, artists and musicians over many decades, turning it into
their hometown or weekend retreat. Located in this incredible context and surrounded by
an astonishing landscape, the Tepoztlan Lounge is the first building completed of a larger
project that also includes a series of bungalows of different sizes and designs, which can
be rented by years, months or days. The lounge is set to be a central communal space for
leisure in nature, and is located in the perimeter of an incredible lawn; the idiosyncrasy of
the project relies on enabling the experience of the carefully manicured lawn while
promoting the experience of the wild nature existing in the boundaries of this central
space. The project is a negotiation between interior and exterior, a construction of an inbetween
condition, an inhabitable threshold, which becomes the main space of the project;
the limits between the open and the content space merge to produce a single architectural
entity.
The design establishes three separate living quarters designed in accordance to the 3
activities planned; each of them is a set space defined by its use, but also by a very clear
and simple architectural container: the first holds an open bar with a kitchenette, together
with a couple of restrooms and dressing rooms; the second is a play area for children that
can also be used as a reading room when temperatures drop at night; and finally the
largest container is the living area, an enclosed, tempered and comfortable space for
conversation, TV, etcetera. But it is the desire to give continuity between these three
separate areas where the project is empowered and becomes meaningful; a continuous
space, in full contact with the nature but protected from its inclemency is set up not only to
expand the enclosed uses, but also to allow new activities to arise.
And it is through the definition of this central space, through the definition of its shape, that
the contiguous courtyards are defined; those are as essential to the project as it is the built
architecture, and allows constructing as a whole, single spatial experience. At the same
time that the three built containers give continuity to the central space by mans of their use
and space, the adjacent patios qualify it, while providing diversity and idiosyncrasy to open
space. The design of the swimming pool is part of this same intervention, and responds to
the desire to characterize the spaces; its formalization necessarily resonates the layout of
the lounge, while incorporating to its nature the possibility of a multiplicity of ways of using
water, and plunging on it.
The building is located as a plinth valuing the views of the mountains. The building wants
to be respectful to the existing context, and understands that the vegetation and life at
open air are the real protagonist. Two impressive trees that are in place are incorporated
within the layout of the lounge, as if they were part of the program itself. The Tepoztlan
Lounge is constructed in concrete not just for being a inexpensive and labor intensive
material in Mexico and to minimize its maintenance, but also to expose its structural
simplicity and neutrality towards the astonishing nature.