Between the Mountains and Shore Ludwig Godefroy Finds Inspiration

Zicatela House Plays off the Duality of the Surrounding Terrain

Name:
Zicatela House
Location:
Oaxaca, Mexico
Architects:
Ludwig Godefroy
Completed: 2015
Photography:
Rory Gardiner
Words:
Marissa Stempien

If ocean scenes conjure images of thatched-roof huts and casual wood-planked bungalows dotting the seashore, you’ve yet to see the Zicatela House designed by Ludwig Godefroy Architecture. Sitting on top of a hill in front of Zicatela beach, next to Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, the house is a modern-day fortress, made of monochromatic concrete, hiding away a world of peace and beauty.

Completed in 2015, the home was designed to be a weekend retreat, an escape from the commotion of Mexico City. A reprieve from the metropolis, it allows visitors a glimpse of the peaceful light of Oaxaca, the allure of the local fauna, and the melodic call of the ocean waves. Sitting on 3,229 square feet of seaside property, the home offers a garden, a pool, and a central atrium where a Mexican pyramid sits, alluding to the surrounding culture and history of the area.

Zicatela House sits between two contrasting landscapes—one side the beach and the sea, on the other side the mountains and agave fields. It finds it’s footing between these two juxtaposing surroundings by creating a space for itself. A monolithic structure built like a bastion, a model of defensive architecture, where a wall surrounds the terrain, helping to create a 100 percent controlled area on the inside, turning it into an open-air fortress, with only one main view towards the vast sky.

Here, Ludwig created a countryside house next to the sea, instead of a beach house. But despite the severity of the architecture it feels natural, open, and welcoming with an outdoor garden and so many indoor/outdoor spaces, making the border between in and out disappear. “The house is a bunker on the outside, one of those massive concrete structures I used to see in Normandy—where I was born—protecting a Mexican pyramid on the inside, one of those I used to see when I traveled around in Mexico,” he noted of the design. It’s this passion for dual architecture and dual landscapes that highlights the unique beauty of the house.