Located within the arid expanse of Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Casa Ananda by Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura emerges as a study in spatial introspection and environmental dialogue. The residence in Cabo del Sol engages in a nuanced architectural conversation with the desert landscape, privileging both refuge and openness. Designed by Diego Yturbe and his team, the project eschews grand gestures in favor of an elemental approach that prioritizes spatial continuity, climatic responsiveness, and material authenticity.
Casa Ananda Technical Information
- Architects1-8: Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura
- Location: Cabo del Sol, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico
- Completion Year: 2023
- Photographs: Courtesy of Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura
The central courtyard, featuring a mountain plum tree, serves as the emotional heart of the home, fostering a sense of refuge and contemplation while maintaining a close relationship with the desert landscape.
– Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura Architects
Casa Ananda Photographs
Spatial Strategy: The Courtyard as an Organizational Core
The architectural challenge in such a context is twofold: to harness the harsh yet sublime qualities of the desert while mitigating its extremes through passive strategies. Casa Ananda embraces this challenge, crafting an environment that oscillates between enclosure and exposure, ultimately fostering a serene domestic experience deeply connected to its surroundings.
At the heart of Casa Ananda is a central courtyard, a typological device deeply rooted in vernacular traditions yet reinterpreted with contemporary sensibilities. This void space operates not merely as a circulation hub but as the emotional nucleus of the home, facilitating both movement and pause. A mountain plum tree at its center introduces an organic counterpoint to the surrounding architecture, reinforcing a sense of stillness and permanence.
The project employs staggered volumes to define a rhythmic spatial sequence, creating a dynamic interplay of light, shadow, and framed views. The transitions between interior and exterior spaces are deliberately modulated, allowing a gradual immersion into the landscape. The courtyard extends seamlessly into a sculptural pool, a gesture that underscores the home’s fluid spatial composition while providing evaporative cooling in the arid climate.
Beyond its formal and experiential qualities, the courtyard is critical to the home’s environmental strategy. It acts as a climatic buffer, channeling natural ventilation and reducing heat gain. The strategic positioning of apertures ensures that air circulates efficiently, minimizing reliance on mechanical systems. In this way, Casa Ananda demonstrates that spatial hierarchy and environmental performance need not be mutually exclusive but can be deeply symbiotic.
Materiality and Environmental Performance
Material selection in Casa Ananda is driven by contextual and sensory considerations. The palette—natural stone, wood, and textured concrete—establishes a tactile dialogue with the desert, resisting ornamentation in favor of material honesty. These elements reinforce the project’s integration into its environment and enhance its bioclimatic performance.
Stone provides thermal mass, absorbing heat during the day and gradually releasing it at night, stabilizing indoor temperatures. Wood, deployed in key areas such as interior finishes and shading devices, introduces warmth while allowing for a softer material transition between spaces. With its raw, monolithic presence, textured concrete anchors the project within its rugged landscape. Together, these materials contribute to a sense of permanence, resisting the transient nature often associated with luxury residences in resort destinations.
A fundamental principle in the project’s environmental approach is passive cooling. Large openings frame strategic views and enable cross ventilation, drawing in cool breezes from the ocean while expelling warm air. Overhangs and recessed spaces provide necessary shading, reducing direct solar gain and lessening the dependence on artificial cooling systems. Though seemingly simple, these strategies reflect a deliberate commitment to sustainable design—one that prioritizes thermal comfort through architectural intelligence rather than technological reliance.
The landscape design by Daniel Dixon of Los Cabos Landscaping complements these material and spatial considerations. Using native vegetation serves multiple purposes: it reinforces the continuity between built and natural environments, reduces water consumption, and contributes to the overall microclimate of the residence. The desert flora, resilient and sculptural in its own right, becomes an integral element in the visual and ecological composition of the project.
Casa Ananda in the Broader Architectural Discourse
Casa Ananda situates itself within a broader lineage of contemporary Mexican architecture that seeks a deeper connection to place—one that moves beyond aesthetic formalism toward a more profound engagement with climate, topography, and materiality. In this regard, Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura aligns with a generation of architects who, rather than imposing upon the landscape, craft interventions that emerge from it.
The project’s emphasis on spatial fluidity and environmental responsiveness challenges the often insular nature of high-end residential design, which can sometimes privilege spectacle over substance. Instead, Casa Ananda advocates for an architecture that is both poetic and performative—one that acknowledges the experiential dimension of space while grounding itself in environmental pragmatism.
Casa Ananda Plans
Casa Ananda Image Gallery
About Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura
Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura is a Mexico-based architectural studio led by Diego Yturbe, known for its thoughtful integration of contemporary design with environmental and contextual sensitivity. The firm emphasizes spatial fluidity, material authenticity, and climate-responsive strategies, crafting projects that engage deeply with their surroundings. Through a refined balance of introspection and openness, Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura creates architecture that is both timeless and rooted in place.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Project Lead Architect: Diego Yturbe (Yturbe Taller de Arquitectura)
- Design Team: Gilberto Aldana, Alejandro Morales
- Interior Design: Alejandro Losaiga
- Structural Engineering: Alonso y Asociados
- MEP Engineering: Ghay & Asociados
- Landscape Design: The Los Cabos Landscaping, led by Daniel Dixon
- Lighting Design: G-Tec, Enrique Sordo
- Construction: Kreation Studio (Sergio Peralta, Fernando Girault)
