Accessibility in Baja California
Casa Cabo Pulmo
House + House Architects
September 24, 2023
by Cathi and Steven House
In a secluded fishing village on the shores of the shimmering Sea of Cortes on Mexico's Baja Peninsula, Patricia Wright and Debra Zeyen decided to build their dream. Having seen our work in a friend's home that they felt was "like a piece of art," they came to us to help make their dream a reality. We knew that this would be a wondrous collaboration between us, them and a spectacular piece of land.
Pat Wright, a blind disability rights activist who was instrumental in passing the Americans With Disabilities Act, and Deb Zeyen, Executive Director of the Baja Coastal Institute, an organization that seeks to protect the region's coastal ecosystems, wanted their new home to take advantage of the expansive views, be holistic, energy-independent, and have accessible features fully integrated into the design, not just tacked on. Features such as hydraulic lifts and rails on the ceilings, accessible kitchens, bathrooms and showers, light switches and plugs at appropriate levels, zero thresholds, with full and comfortable access to all of the rooms and patios were essential
Constructed entirely by hand, without power tools, by local craftsmen using local materials, this home, designed by Cathi, is organized on two levels. The primary living, dining and sleeping spaces are on the upper floor while the guest suites including guest kitchen, dining and living spaces are at the lower floor. This 3,000 square foot home incorporates every manner of passive and active solar design, cross ventilation, convection, and shading to make it comfortable in a harsh desert environment where temperatures can soar and plummet between unbearable extremes, and where north winter winds and hurricanes can sweep the land clear. In addition to its green and sustainable features, this home was designed to be fully accessible to anyone with disabilities.
To make the home fully accessible for wheelchair use a 50-meter long (165 foot) ramp was carefully integrated into the first design sketches, a major piece of art and function that set the tone and guided the layout of the spaces. The ramp incorporates a series of landings and switchbacks that angle to create planters and tie the journey to the land and the vistas of the sea. Regardless of their degree of mobility, guests normally choose to walk up the ramp because the views are so beautiful and the journey is such a joy. Like the rest of the home's layout, the ramp was meant to present a series of twists and turns that makes traveling through the spaces a beautiful experience.
Thresholds throughout the home are flush for smooth wheelchair passage and the guest bedrooms and bathrooms are equipped with overhead tracks for comfortable transfer from wheelchair to bed or bath.
Contained below the ramp are spaces for the home's solar battery storage, a backup generator and two cisterns, one for fresh well water for domestic use and one for storing rainwater for the garden irrigation. Electricity is gathered by solar panels on the roof and stored in a bank of batteries beneath the ramp to provide power for lighting and all the comforts of home. The thermal mass of the winter-sun-warmed concrete floor radiates long after sunset and carefully placed "palapa" roofs and window shades keep out the summer sun. Large north windows and multiple shaded terraces and balconies capture the cool tropical breezes for natural ventilation and ample daylight. A high central skylight is vented to induce convection, pulling naturally cool air from the shaded gardens, up and through the home, expelling the hot air.
The setting is spectacular, a tropical desert between the rugged Sierra de la Laguna Mountains and the luminous Sea of Cortes. The natural features of the desert landscape and majestic mountain backdrop are complemented by the home's geometric architectural elements. The colors, though bold, are drawn directly from the site's vegetation. In the process of exploring possibilities; the owners came to understand how a building finds its place in its landscape - a process that instills harmony, not only in the building, but in the inhabitants. Through this sense of connectedness to the environment and the natural flow of light and air, the unfolding of the views and the comfort of movement, there is no sense that the house was designed to be accessible - it just is, as all spaces should be, naturally accessible.
Cathi recalls:
There is great pleasure in our interactions with clients and also from getting to know other parts of Mexico. Deb and Pat are kind, generous, hopeful, funny and very intelligent - all of which made the struggles of building in remote Cabo Pulmo easier to get through. This was the second home I designed in Cabo Pulmo. It came to us after our having designed and built many homes in San Miguel. But Cabo Pulmo is very different from San Miguel.
A small community, with little infrastructure, no builders or materials nearby, Cabo Pulmo is very far off the beaten path. Designing an accessible home in a place that is itself barely accessible presented a multitude of challenges: finding a builder and crew who were willing to work here for 18 months; figuring out how to house, feed and transport them; finding materials like stone for counters and skilled workers who cut stone and bend the steel for the railings into the figurative shapes intended to represent the waves and creatures of the sea; dirt roads that washed out with every rain. These are all challenges that do not exist in San Miguel, with its skilled artisans and beautiful materials at every turn.
I searched every corner of La Paz and Los Cabos to find the crew and artisans. I worked closely with them to get materials: the columns for the terraces shaped from beautiful tree trunks strangled by vines, which we found in Michoacán and shipped across the Sea of Cortes; amazing granite we used for the kitchen counters which looks like an aerial photo of the arroyos, mountains and canyons of this land.
I love working with clients who trust us and our process and who face the challenges that naturally come with humor and confidence in their crew. All of my work in Mexico has brought me much personal joy, working with craftsmen who are so skilled, able to make anything I ask of them, curious and excited by what we can do together.
We were very honored when our Casa Cabo Pulmo project was recognized in an important design competition. The Cerebral Palsy Foundation and the New York Chapter of the American Instituto of Architects asked architects to submit residential projects that highlighted how Universal Design can be both functional and beautiful, both inspiring and empowering to its users. We were excited that Casa Cabo Pulmo was selected as one of three homes to be featured in their Accessibility is Beautiful program. The Cerebral Palsy Foundation posted our project on their website featuring two videos, both embedded below.
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Cathi and Steven House, the founders and principals of House + House Architects, have received over 50 design awards for their work in California, Mexico, Africa and the Caribbean, and have been featured in prestigious publications throughout the world including two monographs, House + House Architects: Choreographing Space and Houses in the Sun: light movement embrace. Their studies of vernacular architecture have been published in Mediterranean Villages: an architectural journey, and in Villages of West Africa: an intimate journey across time, which document the people, villages and unique architecture. Cathi and Steven lecture extensively and created CASA, The Center for Architecture, Sustainability + Art, a study abroad program based in Mexico.
House + House Architects' work reflects Cathi and Steven's passion for soulfully designed buildings intimately responsive to their site and to their inhabitants.
