A few words about a special kind of architecture particularly suited to the west coast of Mexico. I am a serious student of these matters, an architect, and I designed Villa Estrella according to some principles that I believe are both uniquely appropriate to its Pacific Coast environment, and also happen to coincide with personal values that I hold deeply.
In the villages of Mexico’s Pacific coast, architecture is closer to the earth. Fences are made of sticks, building is predominantly in wood and adobe (sun-dried mud bricks) and the palapa structure, a simple shelter roofed with a thatch of woven palm fronds, endures in a form little changed since pre-Hispanic times. The isolation of the rural environment has produced a timeless vernacular architecture that…. hardly needs any architects.
Even the powerful Mexica or Aztec Empire, which extended as far west as the Pacific, showed little interest in building along this coast as it did in the Valley of Mexico. Yet we know that Montezuma and other great rulers made regular pilgrimages here in search of sun, sea, and recuperation. Perhaps the extravagant beauty seduced the Mexica visitors into a state of euphoria, reducing their usual ambition to build great monuments in stone to a simple desire to enjoy the seductive surroundings.
Not much has changed. When it comes to building along Mexico’s Pacific coast, a different set of rules applies. The monumental elements so prevalent in most contemporary Mexican architecture – the stone-paved courtyards, massive walls, and formal haciendas are willingly discarded.
In their place is a more dreamlike architecture that has no doors, no windows, and very few walls. Angles are replaced by sensuous curves, edges are more rounded, and furniture is forsaken in favor of built-in benches and beds. The line between inside and outside has disappeared. Nature flows seamlessly, invading the house, drawing the occupants to live at one with the seductive and splendid surroundings. Natural rock and plants give the privacy, abundant flowers decorate the space, stunning views and sunshine infuse the house with glory.
The sounds of nature, the sound of wind swaying the palm fronds, the sound of waves surging on the rocks below, the call of birds all immerse the architecture with a symphony of wonder.
The steady sea breeze, warmed by the sun caresses and soothes the skin. The brilliant sun dances like diamonds on the blue ocean. The thick palapa umbrella cone provides the shelter and cool shade from the blazing merciless sun, an ancient design with venting at the top to let the heat escape. You live under and inside a hand crafted, hand woven masterpiece of natural beautiful palm fronds, thousands of them, woven into a simple structure of rustic poles that soothes the soul with its earthy beautiful hand made honesty.
Only natural materials are used. Leather for the furniture, hand woven fabrics, rustic wood, rough stone walls, palm fronds for the roof, clay tiles, and everywhere the plants. Rich, simple, natural textured materials, glorious coloured blossoms, butterflies, hummingbirds, fireflies.
Villa Estrella is the inheritor of these traditions; the antidote to a modern life of tension, technology, hurry and worry. The villa represents the deep felt desire of man to be at one with his natural surroundings, to live as simply as possible, in tune with the deepest rhythms of nature that make the earth turn.
We live with the cycles of the sun, sunrise, sunset, heat of day, cool of night, stunning brightness, velvet darkness. We live with the cycles of the moon and the tides, that infinite cycle, the rising and falling of the seas, the endless mating of sea and shore. The rhythm of the waves; those long deep swells that surge across the oceans in endless powerful rows, surging forever upon the shores below, a thundering drama of explosions on the beach. The cycle of the winds, that rise during the course of the day, only to die in the evenings. The cycles of the seasons that brings rains. The cycles of the pelicans and frigate birds appearing every day. The cycles of the whales appearing and disappearing every year. The cycles of plants that grow and flower. These are the cycles of nature that ground the spirit, bring us peace, comfort, joy and restore the balance of our souls.
This you can expect from Villa Estrella. To see more pictures of our luxury Mexico Villa, visit the Photo Gallery.
