SOUTH BAY DIGS | Digital Edition Online

December 16, 2022

DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.

Issue link: https://www.southbaydiggs.com/i/1488251

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 65 of 75

66 DIGS.NET | 12.16.22 A R C H I T E C T U R E + D E S I G N S W E E T D I G S | C O N C R E T E J U N G L E In designing the two-story boutique hotel—a hybrid of tradition and the avant- garde—one presumes that the French-born, Mexico-based Godefroy was at least partially motivated by what many of us have long considered: Does Mexico really need another discotheque-to-death megaho- tel? Manifestly no. Of modest scale, the architect's elegantly simple concept is a striking rethink for the by-the-beach hospi- tality scene: private and musing, with a pretty unforgettable pool and a bent toward eco-consciousness and social responsibility. I n peaceful La Punta Zicatela, located in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, Casa TO bathes not only in the golden sunsets of a surfer's paradise, but also in the glow of its standing as the most architecturally interesting boutique hotel in town. This cleverly abstracted concrete oasis by architect Ludwig Godefroy is a bold reinterpretation of an ancient Oaxa- can temple, fusing tradition and modernity with seclusion and exposure for something not as much built as sculpted. Casa TO is hardly the country's first flirtation with concrete; Mexico's fidelity to the raw mate- rial calls to mind the work of beloved son Luis Barragán and Japan's Tadao Ando, whose concrete art campus Casa Wabi, another Oaxacan retreat, is a much-Insta- grammed sensation. It is, however, plenty worthy of following—all the way to south- ernmost point of Puerto Escondido.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of SOUTH BAY DIGS | Digital Edition Online - December 16, 2022