Casa Zilin
Casa Zilin is a barely perceptible incision in the landscape that has matured with difficulty over the years in the territory of Baja California. As a strategy to avoid aggression to the landscape, two walls are fitted into the topography to give structure to a floating space that emerges between the morning and evening mist of Cuatro Cuatros; thus, the program of a flexible house is elevated, where the boundaries of intimacy dissolve between the interior and exterior, the public and the private, the top and the bottom. Similarly, an upper observatory is created capable of reflecting the stars and at the same time dividing the space for the life of a couple and potential visitors. Two side courtyards offer spaces for yoga and outdoor gatherings, framing views, breezes, and transparencies, recognizing orientations and wind. Casa Zilin engages in a close dialogue with the topography, while views towards the mountain, the reflection of the stars, the nature reserve, and the housing complex intersect.
Stone emerges as a container of the topography, extending the house in a rainfall-scarce environment but in need of protection against winds and sun. This space is multifaceted: a reading area, workspace, contemplation, rest, food, and personal care. Casa Zilin limits its expression on the ground, weaving axes between walls and a third element: a swimming lane on its roof that flows like a negative or positive, generating setbacks in stairs and shadows in the double height of the social space. The connection with the street, the conjunction of work and sleep, the interior-exterior integration at different levels, allow this space to be useful for a family and for potential cohabiting inhabitants, without interference. As an exercise in synthesis in axes, materials, and scales, silence, light, and orientation compose four intimate spaces.
The construction process decodes the earth load and its angles of repose, employing a fusion between structural glazing and concrete with wooden mezzanines. The staircase acts as a backbone, interweaving levels and alluding to a lantern in the landscape, veiled by a wooden latticework. Sustainability is key: solar energy, water recycling, and minimal territorial interference to preserve native flora and fauna. Light, wind, mist, and landscape are the permanent provocateurs that infuse a space without obvious boundaries. With a frank orientation to the south and north, Casa Zilin emerges on the horizon, in symbiosis with stone and native vegetation. The veiled windows trace the pattern of inhabiting among mountains.
