Espacio 18 Arquitectura's "La Casa del Sapo" Is a Communal Journey of Self-Reflection
Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s lakeside cabin.
One of Espacio 18 Arquitectura newest homes is the La casa del sapo located in Zapotengo, Oaxaca, México.
Roughly 130 sq-m in size, La casa del sapo references the writer Henry David Thoreau, and his two years, two months, and two days spent in his self-built lakeside cabin in Walden Pond, Massachusetts. This move led Thoreau on a transformative journey of reflection and essential living packed with journaling and saunters — teaching him the “essential facts of life.”
As Espacio 18 Arquitectura explains, “La casa del sapo is everyone’s house, it has become a gathering, sapo is union, a family home, a shelter, an inclusive space, a safe space, a rest home, a school, a place where children can learn how to swim, where they can send turtles into the ocean, an orchard, a place to eat and drink mezcal, a place for friends, a place to grow, Pau and Mario’s home… When you get to show the kind of respect that a place deserves, from that very moment of telling the community what are you going to do, it embraces you, which has to be reciprocal.”
The key element to the design are the “two stones” looking at the sea. The first gives the inhabitants a splendid view of the sunrise while the over allows for an uninterrupted sunset. In between the two structures is a spacing that offers a straight path to the sea, the beauty of the coast of Oaxaca.
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In other architectural news, Lunaarch’s Sun Path House is located on the Kernave UNESCO World Heritage Site.
