ACRE HACIENDAS

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The commission called for a dynamic garden capable of hosting events within an eroded site nestled between two desert hills in Baja California. Rather than imposing an external geometry, the proposal emerges directly from the terrain: a series of platforms carved into the slopes, merging with the surrounding topography to form a rounded, amphitheater-like landscape. These terraces create an adaptable environment capable of accommodating multiple configurations of gathering, varying in scale, orientation, and desired vista.

Water, a scarce and essential resource in this context, is collected from the natural runoff of the hills through a perimeter irrigation system and channeled inward. This movement of water sustains the vegetation while establishing a spatial and ecological gradient across the garden.

The landscape concept is organized as an inverted ecological sequence across the three primary levels of the platformed terrain. At the lowest level—the point of arrival—the Sarcocaul shrubland introduces a dry and resilient environment composed of endemic species such as cardón cacti, cirios, and agaves. The intermediate level hosts the coastal desert, where moderated conditions allow for softer and more temperate vegetation. At the uppermost and central platform, water accumulates to form an oasis: a protected and lush environment of palms and dense plantings that becomes the ecological and social heart of the project.

Through this inversion, the garden becomes a constructed geography—an inhabitable landscape where elevation, water, and ecology converge to transform the desert into a place of gathering.

[Finalization]
[Architects]

[Location]
[Site Surface]
[Building Surface]
[Structure] 2023
Manuela Demichelis, Daniel Balderas, Alejandro Montes, Piero Demichelis
San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, México
8000 sqm
1500 sqm
Local stone, compacted sand & reinforced concrete