Casa Isla de la Tortuga
Architectural Design Inspiration
This Caribbean villa is inspired by its location. Since Akumal is known as the home of sea turtles, a few elements in the architectural design use patterns and textures from the animal. This helps to integrate the villa with the surrounding environment.
The facade lattices
The purpose of this facade is to protect the house from environmental factors like sunlight and it helps to protect the main facade from building up heat.
Since the house is made only in two colors – white and brown, the facade lattices are also used as a design element that “play” together with the sun to create patterns of shadows on the external walls of the villa.
This design is inspired by the texture and strength of the turtle shell.
The turtle shell-like pattern used in the facade lattice
The house exterior
In order to keep the house naturally fresh, I have used a material called chuk’un. A natural material made of stones, water, and mud.
The pattern and color of the exterior are also inspired by the shape and color of the turtle.
The turtle shell inspiration
Caribbean Home Challenges
The surrounding environment
The location of the house is in the middle of the jungle which presents the problems for:
- Insects and animals to climb on the walls and enter the house
- The humidity of the ground because of the heavy rainfalls
In order to solve this, I designed the foundation of the house to be elevated from the ground by 50cm and in that one, the house became isolated from the rest of the land.
Schematic of the elevation of the house
Blueprints
