Re-evolution Lounge & Bar

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

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Re-evolution Lounge & Bar

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Firm

a10 studio
LA76 Strategic Design

YEAR

2008

In the center of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the Re.evolution lounge+bar is a project that you’d most probably be seeing in Miami or LA than in a touristy Mexican beach resort; it provides some fresh air to the city nightlife, and has also unintentionally triggered a micro urban renewal in the neighborhood.

 Cabo San Lucas, a popular vacation spot and one of the places in Mexico with the highest density of high-end resorts, faces two public images; on one side, a place of highest luxury and style, visible trough resort catalogues and sponsored promotions, while creating a ‘vision’ of ‘traditional’ Mexico with palapas, colorful taco stands and mariachis. On the other side the town of Cabo San Lucas in its mere heart reveals dusty streets, poverty, cheep local labor and poor urban image due to the negligence of urban planners.

The “Re.evolution lounge+bar” project called for the remodeling of two different commercial spaces, joining them together into a restaurant and a lounge bar in downtown Cabo San Lucas. a10 studio saw in this project the opportunity to comply to the clients needs and transform the two existing 'rough' spaces into a comfortable and contemporary space for a restaurant and a lounge bar, seeking to stand out from the expensive palapa-like bar that seems to be the general aesthetic for businesses in the area.

The project explored the redefinition of the "ground", the manipulation of the ground surface, transforming an element that carries a fixed code into an active field, complex and mutant. The ambiguity between the surface and the space, between bi-dimension and tri-dimension, is perhaps one of the constants of the project as an alternative to the contrast between the ground and the architectural object.

The surface here is not only the envelope of space, but also what defines it, as it emerges in between the both of them as a close relationship. By exploring the ambiguity between ground and envelope, instead of opposing them as is commonly done, a10 studio exploited the indeterminacy that exists between them. With this, the architecture is not anymore just a vertical and active entity built on top of the horizontal and passive flat surface of the ground. Here the ground mutates into an active surface, a plane constructed from where architecture emerges as an unlikely fluctuating figure.

The plan of the project – a restaurant wing (together with kitchen and services) and a bar wing, which are interconnected and function as a whole, but which can also be isolated and functioning independently as individual spaces if needed – is solved with a spatial loop with transgressive trajectories, with knots and crosses, links and virtual links, as well as overlapping messages which are attractors of activity intended to provoke multiple situations (junctions seeming impossible suddenly become possible) in open and closed spatial agencies at once. All these elements make the space feel like a single sleek surface folding into each other, the factor that enables lights to create different ambient, atmospheres and feelings with a mere change of color of the light.

One of the visible, striking and as proved, publicly very acceptable elements of the Re.evolution lounge+bar is its terrace. Its idea derives from Mediterranean terraces, where the terrace becomes a main space of the project. Taking advantage of the Cabo San Lucas weather with average 350 sunny days yearly, the shape of the sidewalk and limits of the lot, the project allowed a10 studio to pull the facade away from the sidewalk and generate an enjoyable open space still part of the bar, and which is now one of the favorite spots where people hang out, see and let themselves be seen.

The project deployed several constraints as low and non-equal walls of two adjacent business spaces, time to delivery and budget limits among others. These were successfully over passed with creative use of locally available materials as for example PVC water pipes, used to create a shade at a terrace, etc. With a budget of $ 50,000 USD and 3 months time from original idea to completion, including design, remodeling, construction, interior design and the opening, a10 studio created an attractive and contemporary entertainment spot which style you’ll most likely be seeing in the popular areas of Miami than of downtown Cabo San Lucas.
The Re.evolution lounge+bar is creating a lot of buzz bringing style, contemporary architecture and design to downtown Cabo, and furthermore creating a micro urban renewal after neighbors realized the added value of putting design to work for them and their businesses, plenty of them have started painting their facades, or even planning to remodel their very own businesses improving the overall image of this part of the city.
As Mariano Arias-Diez principal of a10studio says: “This are the kind of things you hardly realize when you do a project, but then, when architectural ideas mix with the everyday rationalization and use of the city by its dwellers and flaneurs, great things can be accomplished”.
The project allowed a contemporary space for local entertainment and nightlife, but also triggered a much-needed evolution of the urban image of the very heart of still rural Cabo San Lucas.

PROJECT DATA:
architectural project: a10studio
principal in charge: Mariano Arias-Diez
type: commercial, restaurant and lounge bar
location: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
area: 198.50 m2
project year: 2009
date of completion: September 2009
client: JDFA S. DE R.L.
time to completion: 3 months
status: completed
CONSULTANTS:
graphics and logos: LA76 strategic design
structural engineer: Ing. Jacobo Perez-Valle / OBRA Metalica
lighting design: a10studio
audio+acoustics: Daniel Bradley / Expo Cabo
general contractor: Fernando Hernandez / AMP
windows + glass: Vidrios San Marcos, CSL
PHOTOS:
construction photos: a10studio
final images: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design

Contact: a10 studio, Mariano Arias-Diez: info@a10studio.net,
www.a10studio.net