Casa Mar

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Dream Inn

Casa Mar

Firm

Coleman-Davis Pagán Arquitectos

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2011

The project seeks to develop a
fresh and novel concept for a private single-family residence in the
context of a major public beach on the urban edge of San Juan.
Altering this neighborhood’s traditional relationship
with the ocean - one of virtual negation, the design reverts this
tendency by celebrating the views to the sea and making it the focus
of the important living spaces.

The initial concern - public vs.
private = site vs. program - led to reconsider the typical site
relationship by elevating the living spaces on two (2) levels above
the ground and establishing a new ‘horizon’ with the clear
intention of buffering – yet integrating - the intensely frequented
beach. At the same time, this (3m) rise safeguards from a possible
hurricane/storm surge - approximately every decade.

A simple, direct design scheme
follows a coherent programmatic allocation of the habitable spaces -
living and resting areas focusing on the ocean, service and less
hierarchical spaces on the opposite side, with circulation in the
center. This straightforward arrangement is further formulated into
distinctive horizontal ‘layers’, from North to South:

* beach perimeter wall with
sliding gate (privacy or transparency).

* garden with seven (7) large palm
trees (existing at the site).

* linear swimming/lap pool

* (upcoming) bi-folding louvered
‘screen’, allowing degrees of privacy

* sliding glass doors (with
roll-up curtains)

* main active and resting spaces
(living, dining, family and bedrooms)

* circulation ‘strip’ - stair,
landings, corridors and clerestory/slit roof

* board-formed exposed concrete
wall (from basement to roof)

* service spaces (kitchen,
laundry, baths, closets, guest rooms, etc.)

* ‘brise-soleil’
(deep overhangs, long
vertical fins and small apertures)

* Six (6) trees at planting strip
adjacent to property line

* South perimeter wall (vertical
grooves permit ventilation to neighbor)

Vertically, the house is divided
into occupancy zones:

* Basement – pump room, storage,
gym and .

* Ground – terrace for informal
activity & pool, entrance and parking

* Second level – living, dining,
family, kitchen, laundry, guest room

* Third level – bedrooms,
, study, bathrooms, closets

* Roof level – wood deck
(North), mechanical/solar equipment (South)

All levels are physically
interconnected by the linear stair and an elevator. Visually, they
are integrated by two (2) double height spaces (permit diagonal views
to the ocean and pool) and the central core. This core or ‘inner
spine’ is unified by the board-formed concrete wall (from basement
to roof), articulated with three (3) flights of the wood/glass stair
(+ steel beam) and culminated on the East, West and roof with
skylights and indirect natural light slits. On the West façade and
part of the roof, above the entrance vestibule, this circulation
‘strip’ is further expressed with a sculpted, cast-in-place,
terracotta-tinted, concrete wall – textured/rough exterior and
smooth interior.

Addressing sustainability, the
house features a linear photovoltaic-paneled pergola generating
energy for most domestic consumption (except air conditioning) as
well as providing shade and protection for the a/c compressors. Hot
water is supplied by a vaccum tube solar heater. Rainwater is
retained and stored in a ground-level cistern, supplying water for
landscaping and hose bibs, as well as replenishing pool evaporation.