Studio Font Builds a Hurricane-Ready Concrete House in Puerto Escondido from Five Planes and a Floating Pergola

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This article covers topics related to Seaside Architecture, Desert Architecture, Latin American Houses, Container House, Facade Design, Installations, Transportation, Concrete House. On Oaxaca's Macahuite Beach, a 300 m² house of bare concrete walls and a 14-metre pergola frames the dune, the Pacific and the mountains behind it.

On Oaxaca's Macahuite Beach, a 300 m² house of bare concrete walls and a 14-metre pergola frames the dune, the Pacific and the mountains behind it.

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Casa Macahuite sits on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, near Puerto Escondido, where the ocean is rough and the climate is hot. The region gets earthquakes and hurricanes, and in the rainy season it storms most afternoons. Raquel Font of Studio Font answered that setting with very few elements: four load-bearing concrete walls and a horizontal pergola that spans 14 metres with no intermediate supports. Everything else is open air, timber shutters and the scrub that surrounds the house.

What interests us is how far the house pushes one idea. The structure is also the finish, and in many places it is the furniture too. Walls continue into the kitchen counter, and the same concrete forms the basins and the sofa bases. Nothing is clad. The result is a 300 m² house that behaves less like an enclosure and more like a frame for living outdoors. It is built to survive a hurricane and still let the breeze pass straight through.

A Clearing Behind the Dune

Aerial view of a small house in dense coastal scrub, set back from a sandy beach and breaking waves

Aerial view of a small concrete house on a long sandy beach backed by forested hills in morning haze

Aerial view of the white concrete house set among coastal scrub, with a sandy track and surf along the beach at dusk

Drone view of two concrete blocks joined by a covered porch, set in dense scrub with a dirt track and hazy mountains

Distant view of the blocky concrete house with open corners, surrounded by cactus scrub under a hazy orange dusk sky

The aerials show the first decision, and it may be the most important one. The house stands back from the sand so the dune stays intact. It occupies a natural clearing inside a ring of existing coastal vegetation, and you reach it by a bridge over a lagoon. The beach in front is a protected turtle-nesting site and gives the house its name. From above, the building reads as a small, pale mark in a large green field, not a beachfront object competing with the surf.

The surrounding scrub does real work here. It forms a garden court around the house and screens it from the track and the beach, while the double-height openings look over it to the sea and the hills. Privacy comes from planting, not from walls, so the architecture can stay open on every side.

Five Planes and Nothing Extra

Two concrete pavilions joined by a low bridge beam, with open bedrooms and a stair, set among prickly pear at sunset

Board-formed concrete volumes with timber louvered shutters seen past tall cacti in warm dusk light

Stepped concrete walls of differing heights seen behind tall columnar cacti and shrubs under a dusky grey sky

Concrete box volume with an open upper room and timber pergola, half hidden by coastal shrubs and cacti at sunset

Board-formed concrete house with an exterior stair rising to a shuttered timber upper room, seen across sand in warm evening haze

Concrete volumes with a small square window rising above cactus-covered scrub, framed by a prickly pear pad against an orange sunset sky

The plan is an H. Two rectilinear volumes of two storeys each are joined by a single-storey slab, the floating pergola that shelters the social space. The side walls of each volume are solid board-formed concrete. The front faces open fully through glazing and folding timber louvres. Seen through the cacti, the stepped walls of different heights look almost like ruins, solid on one axis and empty on the other.

This orientation is the climate strategy. The solid flanks take the sun and the storm loads, and the insulated concrete stores heat and releases it slowly. The open ends let air run straight through the rooms. The gaps between the planes create shaded in-between spaces, and that is where most of daily life happens.

The Pavilion as the Living Room

Open-sided living pavilion between two concrete walls, with a timber deck, long dining table and built-in sofa facing the sea at dusk

Open concrete pavilion with timber ceiling beams, built-in sofa, plank dining table and daybeds beside a lap pool in hazy sun

Timber deck with three cushioned loungers beneath exposed beams, looking across a pool to cactus scrub and the sea

Covered timber deck with low daybeds and a potted cactus facing the ocean horizon at sunset

The central pavilion is where the 14-metre span pays off. Without columns, the space between the two concrete walls becomes a single deck. A long plank dining table, a built-in sofa and daybeds face the ocean under exposed timber beams. It is a roof and a floor with almost nothing between them, which suits a place where you want shade more than shelter for most of the year.

The steel system behind the span is kept out of sight, so the pergola reads as a light plane resting between heavy walls. That contrast between solid sides and a hovering roof gives the house its character more than any detail does.

A Pool Between Public and Private

Plunge pool running along the concrete house, with wooden louvered shutters, daybeds and a potted cactus in soft evening light

Top-down view of a narrow pool with two swimmers, a lizard sculpture on the concrete wall and a timber deck

Cantilevered concrete stair above a built-in seat and woven rug, with a bird flying over the plunge pool and scrub beyond

A narrow plunge pool runs along the house and acts as a soft boundary between the shared pavilion and the bedroom wings. It is a threshold you look across rather than a door you close. The top-down view shows how slim it is: a lap-like strip set into the timber deck, with a lizard sculpture on the adjacent wall.

The cantilevered concrete stair above a built-in seat shows the same logic. Circulation, seating and wall are made of one material in one pour, and the pool reflects them back.

Rooms That Fold Open

Bedroom opening through folded wooden shutters to a terrace chair and the horizon, with a leaning ladder and trailing vine

Concrete bedroom with a folded-back timber louvre shutter and a bed facing the ocean and dune vegetation in bright daylight

Concrete mezzanine with a daybed and potted plants, framed by open timber shutters facing a pool and the distant ocean

The bedrooms rely on folding timber louvres rather than solid doors. Closed, they filter light and air and keep out rain blown in by the wind. Folded back, they turn a concrete box into a balcony facing the horizon. The mezzanine daybed, set between open shutters above the pool, is about as close as a bedroom gets to sleeping outside without actually doing so.

The timber matters more than its small quantity suggests. Against bare concrete, it brings warmth, movement and texture you can feel. It is also the one element of the house that people adjust every day.

When the Wall Becomes the Furniture

Cantilevered concrete kitchen counter with a gas hob and sink, framed against scrub vegetation at sunset

Board-marked concrete wall and cantilevered roof over a timber kitchen counter, with a person inside and sand and shrubs in the foreground

Outdoor kitchen opening in a concrete wall with a sliding louvered timber shutter, steel faucet and cooktop, warm light on the sand

Round-ended concrete basin on a cylindrical pedestal beside a frangipani tree, with timber louvered doors and a circular mirror

Concrete washbasin with a frangipani tree in front of a blank concrete wall, with columnar cactus and stairs under clear sky

Concrete bathroom with a twin stone trough basin and walnut cabinet framing a window onto the sea

Round concrete basin and counter beside a reclaimed timber ledge, opening onto green scrubland and distant hills at dusk

The kitchen is the clearest example of structure becoming furniture. A load-bearing wall extends into a cantilevered counter with a hob and sink, open to the scrub at sunset. A sliding louvred shutter can close off the outdoor kitchen opening. There is no joinery package and no applied surface, only the wall doing a second job.

The bathrooms carry the idea further. A round-ended basin on a cylindrical concrete pedestal stands beside a frangipani tree, almost freestanding against a blank wall. A twin stone trough frames a window onto the sea. These pieces read as sculptural. They also make sense on a coast where humidity and salt quickly wear out conventional fittings, since there is very little left to rot, peel or replace.

Plans and Drawings

Ground floor plan drawing showing two wall-bound wings flanking a central slatted covered living space, with stairs, planted courts and a pool strip

Upper floor plan drawing showing two tapered bedroom wings with ceiling fans, stairs and planters, separated by an open central void above the pool edge

Plan drawing of a long rectangular house with angled walls, a rooftop stair and a central void, set among sketched shrubs and palms

Section drawing cutting through two flanking volumes and a long central pavilion with a dining table, framed by palm trees and cacti

Elevation drawing of two louvered shutter-clad blocks flanking a low open pavilion, with palms and cacti outlined behind

The ground floor plan makes the H explicit. Two wall-bound wings flank the central slatted living space, with planted courts and the pool strip tucked into the gaps. Upstairs, the two tapered bedroom wings are separated by an open void above the pool edge. Neither floor has a corridor.

The section and elevation are where the five-plane idea is easiest to read. The tall louvred blocks sit at either end, and the low pavilion is stretched between them, drawn among palms and cacti. They are simple drawings, which suits a house built from so few parts.

Why This Project Matters

Coastal houses in hurricane zones often respond to risk by sealing themselves up with storm shutters and air conditioning. Casa Macahuite points the other way. Heavy, insulated walls face the loads, and the open ends give the air a clear path through the house. Shade comes from a single long span. The robustness is in the structure, so the rest of the house can stay light and open.

It also makes a convincing case for restraint as a site strategy. Pulling back from the dune and living inside an existing clearing lets the landscape provide privacy, and using one material for walls, counters and basins cuts down the number of things that can fail. The house will not suit anyone who wants polish. As a model for building lightly on a fragile, volatile coast, it is worth studying closely.

Casa Macahuite by Studio Font (Raquel Font), Macahuite Beach, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Area: 300 m². Completed: 2025. Contractor: Efraín Salinas Ríos. Structural engineering: F. Calleja. Electrical engineering: KOVA. Mechanical engineering: FREMER. Photography: Albers Studio.

About the Studio

Studio Font

Official website of Studio Font, one of the studios behind this project.

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