The Telchac Building, designed by César Béjar Studio + Esencial Studio, is formalized through a series of colonnades, which facilitate the transparency of all its floors and lighten its mass, dissolving the main volume into wooden boxes facing the beach to accommodate the main spaces on this front.
The project is built using local resources, such as zapote wood, typical of the region's beach buildings, and the use of pigmented chukum, suggesting the idea of a handmade building that creates a closer connection with its context. The envelope becomes a protective skin thanks to the setback of certain windows, which, combined with the circulation areas, provides a positive response to sunlight and facilitates views of the surrounding environment.
Telchac Beach Club by César Béjar Studio + Esencial Studio. Photograph by César Béjar Studio.
Project description by César Béjar Studio + Esencial Studio
Under the premise of designing a building in a low-scale context facing the beach and with a mixed program, the resulting project uses certain formal strategies that integrate it into the site.
The building is made up of four levels, the first two for commercial use for a restaurant and the last two for residential use with two apartments.
On the outside it is staggered on its four sides, referring to a pyramid or ziggurat and at the same time integrating more into the context. The use of colonnades determines the transparency of all floors, the first ring on the ground floor surrounds the building as wooden portals that further lighten the mass of the building. Likewise, the building dissolves into wooden boxes that extend towards the beach and contain seating areas in front of it.
The ground floor, reminiscent of a hypostyle hall, is closed and houses living spaces through the use of curved apsidal walls, some of which trap views to private areas. The service entrances and the entrances to the apartments are located at the ends, leaving the entrance to the restaurant in the central part of the building.
The tectonic language of the wooden columns is replicated in all the concrete columns marked with a groove on their exterior face, as a last gesture of lightening, transposing the tectonic language of a wooden structure to the solidity of the stereotomic language.
The setback of certain windows and circulations results in a better response to solar incidence, the permeable mass also promotes cross ventilation and amplifies clear views towards the beach.
A large balcony surrounds the ground floors of the mirror apartments. The two floors of the apartments are contained in the last step of the mass, simulating having three floors instead of four.
The materiality is based on the use of local resources such as Zapote wood typical of beach constructions in the region and the use of pigmented chukum, showing that it is a handmade building.
