Max von Werz merges old and new at Baja Club Hotel in Mexico
Historic brick partitions and a spiral staircase attribute in a Baja Peninsula lodge that was designed by Mexican company Max von Werz Arquitectos to embrace its seaside context.
The Baja Club Resort is positioned in the historic centre of La Paz, a coastal metropolis in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. The 32-room assets, which is owned by the boutique lodge business Grupo Habita, was longlisted for a 2021 Dezeen Award.
The 3,623-sq.-metre venture entailed the adaptive reuse of a colonial-type villa relationship to 1910 and the building of a new, 4-storey extension. The web page was the moment utilized for oyster pearl harvesting.
Mexico City’s Max von Werz Arquitectos intended the architecture, whilst the Parisian studio of Jaune oversaw the interiors. Mexican business PAAR labored on the landscape structure.
“Baja Club’s central concern is the age-aged just one of how to construct on a site’s rich record and character, but at the identical time update it in get to give it a new lease on lifetime,” the workforce mentioned. “Our response is a nuanced a single.”
For the new addition, the group designed an L-formed making – the very same form of the primary villa.
The two buildings are loosely organised around a central courtyard that is dotted with fragrant frangipani trees. Tranquil gardens and patios were being integrated into the perimeter of the web page.
The extension – which encompasses visitor rooms, a spa and a rooftop bar – is meant to glimpse fashionable but be in “respectful dialogue with the previous villa.” Stepped massing assists lighten its visible visual appearance.
“The tiered massing of the extension reduces its visual bulk and supplies generous terraces taking pleasure in panoramic views of the Bay of La Paz, once the placing of John Steinbeck’s novel The Pearl,” the group stated.
Specified structure things consider cues from the hotel’s nautical context. Horizontal lines, curved timber partitions and substantial designed-in tables attract inspiration for the nearby Sea of Cortés, which was coined the “aquarium of the world” by French explorer Jacques Cousteau.
The addition’s upper degrees can be accessed by elevator or by a helical staircase, which sits at the meeting place of the extension’s two wings. The stair is intended to provide as a sculptural component.
“Because of to its cozy tread-to-riser ratio, it sweeps people up to the higher visitor-place ranges and the rooftop sunset bar with an relieve that disincentivises the use of the elevators,” the team stated.
To assistance decrease strength intake, the team included passive style and design options these as screens alongside open-air corridors. In addition, concrete ground plates lengthen outside of the facades, providing shade and decreasing the need for indoor air conditioning, the group explained.
The website also has several water aspects that assistance great outdoor spaces – an critical element given the region’s very hot and dry local climate.
Throughout the hotel, the crew incorporated finishes and decor – such as hand-completed carpentry, blown-glass lamps and Talavera tiles – that attract on neighborhood lifestyle and the site’s original detailing.
“Baja Club Hotel aims to give a present day twist on Mexico’s wealthy custom of colours, textures and craftsmanship,” the group explained. “By working with nearby resources in a clean and streamlined manner, it creates a bridge that ties together the identification of the hotel’s old and new factors.”
For the landscape style and design, significantly of the current vegetation and architectural features were retained. An previous pergola in the courtyard was restored and is now utilised as a eating place. The property’s original brick walls were preserved in their entirety.
In 1 of the perimeter areas, the team designed a new swimming pool lined with brick terraces that go on the language of the historic house partitions. Chukum, a sort of Mexican stucco, was utilised in the pool area.
“For us, making use of neighborhood craftsmanship was a way to anchor the task in its locale, to achieve a selected authenticity and to create a potent relationship with the background and identity of the place,” the team reported.
Other properties run by Grupo Habita involve the Círculo Mexicano, a lodge in downtown Mexico City that is housed in a 19th-century setting up, and The Robey Hall in Chicago, which was formerly a hostel named The Hollander.
The images is by César Béjar.