How architects managed to make a traditional Mexican house design with a panoramic terrace modern and spectacular – environmental friendliness, views, and integration with nature. Architectural bureau Zozaya Arquitectos presented a modern house with a panoramic hillside terrace in the Mexican city of Zihuatanejo. The three-story villa is located on a hill more than 100 meters high overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The terraces offer an impressive perspective on the Pacific coast and into the distance to the horizon. The project of the house with panoramic windows and a terrace is integrated with the external natural environment.
The house with a panoramic terrace is built on the principle of steps, repeating the geometry of the hill. Due to this, the lower floors protrude several meters ahead – this allowed the use of their roof for the arrangement of recreation areas. At the lowest of them, there is also a swimming pool with panoramic ocean views.
Thanks to the design in the form of steps, the upper terraces do not block the space for relaxation from below. They only create a small visor, under which you can hide from the hot day sun. Due to this architecture, it was possible to create open-view recreation areas at each level. Moreover, there is practically no clear border between the terraces and the interior.
The house with a panoramic terrace is designed to maintain the unity of the external and internal spaces. The living room and dining room offer direct ocean views. These rooms smoothly turn into terraces, and visually are practically not separated from the outside due to panoramic glazing. At the same time, glass structures protect the housing from wind, and rain, leaving them completely open. Glazing to the floor allows you to isolate yourself inside the house, without losing visual unity with the surrounding landscape.
Integration with nature can also be seen in the interior, the arrangement of terraces, and the facade. It used mainly natural, environmental materials. The palette characteristic of local nature has been observed. Outside and inside the house, many exotic plants are planted. They have become one of the main landscape design tools.
Unlike traditional layouts, when the transition from social to private space is made from bottom to top, here private rooms are located on the lower floor, and the living room, kitchen, and dining room are on the upper two. The entrance to the is also planned unusually – at an average level.
The house with a panoramic terrace has become a modern interpretation of traditional Mexican housing. Using natural materials – stone, wood, palm beams, wood plaster, architects and designers managed to achieve the atmosphere of a typical Zihuatanejo house here. Along with this, modern wooden floors, panoramic glass, and steel structures are used here – the traditional Mexican style is implemented by modern trends.
| Architects | Zozaya Arquitectos |
| Photo | César Belio |
