MIZATA POINT

MIZATA POINT Located on a beach in El Salvador known for its surfing, the site had a six bungalow working hotel and empty pieces of land on both sides. A small marsh divides the property, leaving a hilly area with a private beach for houses on one side and a flat area with a long sandy beach on the other, for hotel rooms and a restaurant. Being in a part of the country that is poor and with limited development; the project is committed socially and environmentally. The first area to be reached, when approaching the project from the main road, is the restaurant, positioned next to a municipal beachfront piece of land. The restaurant opens to this common area and provides it with beach soccer, beach volleyball and shaded areas to rest. Thus giving the community amenities and creating interaction between them and the hotel guests. Two palapas (one restaurant, one bar) converge in the only closable volume which contains the kitchen, bathrooms and utility rooms. The openness of the spaces, the shape, the height and the materials of the roof, help maintaining a comfortable temperature. There is a pool and lounge towards the beach, of which walls protect the waves from coming in. Throughout the project the specified materials are local, including the furniture. The details are rustic and simple to allowed for local labor. THE TREEHOUSES / To achieve social spaces and views on the ground floor, the proposed hotel rooms are elevated, like treehouses. There are not many trees at the site and the space is limited to offer views to seventeen bungalows. For those reasons, the bungalows have the shape of leaves, thus creating an organic landscape. The narrow, elongated shapes with pointy ends of the leafy volumes, allow the view tunnels to be reduced and gives the opportunity of having several rows of bungalows. The structure of each unit is made with local wood. The roof of palm tree is elevated to achieve crossed ventilation. The result is a very open space. To give some protection against the elements, when needed, the bed has been designed as a closable cubicle. This allows to have a small area guarded from weather, insects and noise…it results on the use of a very small air conditioning unit, without over using resources. On top of the bed structure, another rest area is created; an area where the perspective and exposure to the outside are different. On the ground floor the position of the staircase offers some privacy for lounges with ocean views. THE VILLAS / On the east extreme of the property, across the marsh, five villas are proposed. Regarding the lot dimensions, narrow houses assured a beachfront to the five units and allowed for all of them to have a pool. Interleaved gardens give light and crossed ventilation to every space. The gardens also become livable areas and permit views through them, thereby giving the different rooms an ocean view. The experience becomes a procession of opened and enclosed spaces, with the waves as the background. The roofs are green and sloped, resulting in fresh interior spaces that have high areas where extra beds can be achieved on top of the bathrooms. The group of volumes, displayed life checkers, follow the levels of the piece of land, camouflaging the project with the mountains of behind.