Costa Palmas Beach Club and Cabanas

Located on the East Cape of Los Cabos, Mexico, the project sits along a tranquil shoreline of the Gulf of California and is comprised of a communal Beach Club with supporting guest Cabanas and a Beach Pavilion, which serves as the physical and social hub for an emerging resort community. Design Narrative Located at the headland of a freshwater estuary bordering the Gulf of California, the Beach Club and Cabanas harmoniously blend contemporary architecture with the natural landscape. The designs juxtapose the simple rectilinear volumes and horizontal planes of the architecture with the organic lines of the surrounding dunes and distant coastal mountains. The result being a delicate balance between built and natural environments. The Beach Club was envisioned as the heart of the emerging community and intended to provide both physical amenities, as well as establish the aesthetic sensibilities and lifestyle precedent for future development in the community. The design draws inspiration from the iconic "beach shack" and is expressed as a series of teak wood and glass volumes. Loosely arranged to create a central outdoor living area, flanked by conditioned dining and exhibition spaces, the design relies on passive sustainability strategies for sun shading, cross ventilation and evaporative cooling. Native landscaping flows through the entry and circulation areas, while teak trellises filter sunlight into dynamic shaded patterns that evolve throughout the day. The ’cabanas’ were intended to functionally support the sales process of the project through their ability to host guests visiting the site and similarly helped establish the aesthetic vocabulary for the future resort. Situated amongst the shoreline dunes, the design for the ‘cabanas’ employs a low-impact architecture to transform a normal guest stay into a unique multisensory experience. The cabanas take the recognizable image of the hastily crafted beach shack and elevate it to a surprising level of sophistication. As a built form, the building is composed of two primary elements: an interior volume and a protective louvered skin. The interplay between the louvers and wood siding come together in intricate ways and the connections and varied orientations give life and texture to the rustic material. Perched beside the cabanas the “Beach Pavilion” similarly makes use of the established vocabulary of the teak wood box and trellised roof structure to create an open-air dining facility at the edge of the shoreline, immersing guests in the natural beauty of the site. The pavilion platform is accessed via a meandering path that begins at the estuary bridge, which connects the Beach Club to the dunes. This journey through the landscape highlights the natural beauty of the area, offering glimpses of the cabanas nestled among the dunes and framing picturesque views of the pristine shoreline.