Due to the materials used, such as wood and cane, natural to the area, the project is light and lightweight and can be easily lifted off the ground, allowing air to pass underneath and between its three roofs. The panels include windows to increase the communication between the interior and the exterior which is already present thanks to the cane.
The climate and seasons of the area mean that the summer months are particularly hot and with high solar radiation, while the winter is cold and dry, so the architect wanted to use native vegetation to adapt his project to this extreme climate. This also achieves a good aesthetic harmony with the environment and the landscape of the Peruvian coast.
Tamiz by Carlos Pastor Santa María. Photograph by Marines Herrera Otero y Carlos Pastor Santa María.
Tamiz by Carlos Pastor Santa María. Photograph by Marines Herrera Otero y Carlos Pastor Santa María.
Description of project by Carlos Pastor Santa María
The Tamiz project is located in the south of the great Peruvian coastal desert, in the region and department of the same name, Ica. It is an extensive and fertile desert inhabited since pre-Hispanic times - among others - by the Nazca and Paracas cultures.
This project, Tamiz, is located in a unique space, a traditional hacienda, where the fertile soil of southern Peru is cultivated with fruit and pecan trees that develop generously due to the climate.
Tamiz allows rest and contemplation for visitors to the hacienda. It tries to capture the sunlight from dawn, to filter it and recover the memory of the old mansions of the coastal desert of southern Peru. The project is inserted and arrives lightly to conjugate with its place. It rests on the site in an appropriate manner, filters the light of dawn second by second and catches every last ray of afternoon light with a plane of reed cane, gathered from the site and woven into its façade. It is oriented in such a way that it generates a delicate comfort to live with its inhabitant at all times.
The project proposes, as a main strategy, a large façade, a reed sieve, which receives all the radiation of the sunrise from the south coast and generates a gradient of torn lights throughout the day. It proposes a generous and honest distribution with a receipt to observe the light and its path throughout the day in both summer and winter.
The structural system of the project allows it to be suspended, it is light, efficient and gives freedom to the passage of air underneath and between its three roofs. In addition, the passive strategies allow the necessary comfort, both in summer and in the cold and dry winter.
The enclosures are made of wood and cane panels, materials typical of the Peruvian coast. They are arranged according to the functionality of the space. Those of the social area are woven on site and this allows a change of scene with the play of light and shadow, second by second. To see or not to see, inside or outside... This strategy democratises the use, perception and freedom of the inhabitant.
The cane panels combined with the windows and the wood protect the private place and allow a shadow that sifts the space, from inside to outside and from outside to inside, this lightens the spatial sensation due to the cane arranged on a large plane. The suspended project gives a pedestal feel with its floor-to-ceiling spans in each living space.
The project was entirely fabricated by our team. We developed the process of each part up to the assembly of the project. Dilations and contractions of each detail, how the different materials are joined... All of them, the cane, the wood and the steel, contribute from their form, function and lightness. They frame and develop each room.
The climate on the southern Peruvian coast is characterised by short summer months with lots of sunshine and a long, cold, sunny but dry winter. For this reason, each element is part of a system that assimilates the vegetation as part of the project. The project alone does not work. Nature and landscaping complete the shelter and invade it generously in texture, colour and aroma. Adorning the visual fluidity conjugated with the light of the southern coastal desert.
