A cut above: on a rocky site over the Pacific Ocean, a Mexican house exploits the prospect and arid beauty of the site. (House).The Weiss House, by Steven Harris Architects, has been built into the rocky contours of a headland, 75m above the Pacific Ocean in Cabo San Lucas Cabo San Lucas (popularly known as just Cabo) is a small city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula at , in the municipality of Los Cabos in the state of Baja California Sur, Mexico. ; it is the southernmost private house at the foot of the Baja Peninsula, one of the few places in the world where the desert meets the sea. The landscape is an arid one of rock and sandy windswept wind·swept adj. Exposed to or swept by winds: windswept moors. windswept Adjective 1. soils; and natural vegetation, of desert grasses and cacti, is sparse. Wishing to preserve the particular beauty of the landscape and disturb it as little as possible, the architects divided the house into two separate wings, dispersing them to the perimeter of the site. The result is a marvellous sense of space, light and air; and an impression of experiencing the land as it is, for as well as being spread out horizontally, the structures take advantage of vertical drops. The approach to the house, looking down on roofs and with a view of the Pacific, gives some intimation of drama. From a car port you pass between large boulders, down a stair carved out of the rock, to a ramp between two walls where a view of the sea is denied. The path through an entrance pavilion (embellished by a Bertoia sculpture) opens into a magical stony garden, a fragment of desert outcrop sprouting spiny spiny sharp spines protrude. spiny amaranth amaranthusspinosum. spiny anteater see echidna. spiny clotburr xanthiumspinosum. spiny emex see emex australis. cacti and frangipani frangipani Any of the shrubs or small trees that make up the genus Plumeria, in the dogbane family, native to the New World tropics and widely cultivated as ornamentals; also, a perfume derived from or imitating the odour of the flower of one species, P. rubra. . On the east of this internal courtyard is the (private) master bedroom; on the west, are living and dining rooms above a study, with guest accommodation fitted into the cliff below. Along the south cliff edge are an open pavilion with study and guest bedrooms beneath, and a pool, cantilevered towards the Pacific. Formally, the building's austere geometry, suppressed section and subdued palette defer to the muscular forms and subtle hues of the terrain. Open to the limitless expanse of sea on the one hand, to fragments of desert on the other, its interior becomes a series of sensual experiences. Some rooms are cave-like; others at the cliff edge are barely enclosed by glass and seem suspended in mid-air. Light and water are elemental themes running through the design. Glass rods embedded in the east wall of the master bedroom pick up the first rays of sunlight and project large circles on the plane opposite. Underground media and exercise rooms, excavated out of the rock to the north, are themselves sources of light. By day illuminated by slivers cut through the ground, they cast luminance The amount of brightness, measured in lumens, that is given off by a pixel or area on a screen. For example, dark red and bright red would have the same chrominance, but a different luminance. at night over the rocky surface and over the entrance path. A glass bottomed runnel, which collects water during the short and torrential rains, doubles as a skylight over a glass shower and over the guest room below. Steps of underlit stone seem to float. Structure is of reinforced concrete reinforced concrete Concrete in which steel is embedded in such a manner that the two materials act together in resisting forces. The reinforcing steel—rods, bars, or mesh—absorbs the tensile, shear, and sometimes the compressive stresses in a concrete and high-strength laminated glass Noun 1. laminated glass - glass made with plates of plastic or resin or other material between two sheets of glass to prevent shattering safety glass, shatterproof glass glass - a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure . The area is subject to hurricanes and the glass is braced by a sophisticated system of custom-made stainless steel stainless steel: see steel. stainless steel Any of a family of alloy steels usually containing 10–30% chromium. The presence of chromium, together with low carbon content, gives remarkable resistance to corrosion and heat. anchor points--a measure that allows much larger expanses of glass than would otherwise be possible. Otherwise, the concrete construction is conventional and familiar to local craftsmen. RELATED ARTICLE: Architect Steven Harris Architects, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Photographs Scott Fransces/Esto |
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