Acre Restaurant

Located inside a local orchard (4 acres) at San Jose’s “arroyo” close to the Sea of Cortez. ACRE is a hidden resort in Baja California Sur’s landscapes of palms and mangos. The site is ten minutes away from the city center accessed by a dirt road. The location and the purpose of the project was really inspiring, to develop a new area for orchards and organic fields inside an old mango orchard.
The aim was to embrace the site, as part of it, the architectural elements emerge from the local landscape. So, we define the boundaries with the existing palms that surround the restaurant on the natural survey. The building is oriented north, after the solar studies define the right location for it. The main views are oriented and scaled to the palms and mango trees, as we complement the landscape with eatable species and herbals that the chef will use in the menu.
The design achieved the cultural sensibility and environmental respect to the desert lands of Baja California, with careful observation on the local materials, climate and landscape. The architecture is both timeless and contemporary.
The main service areas are elevated in earth that was mechanically rammed and covered with a concrete slab. A light steel structure covers the bar and the main central dining area. The earth was extracted locally and rammed on site, providing us a very low carbon foot print construction, using with what you can find in the desert - sand and local soils mixed and stabilized with a low portion of cement to create a loadbearing and resistant structure. “Palo de arco” and reed are also commonly collected and used locally to create pergolas and natural shades.
Since it is a flood-prone area during hurricane season we decide to elevate the structure 1.2m above the ground to avoid water damage. The foundation was constructed with concrete connecting the where the load bearing rammed earth walls fiscally to the ground.
The whole project was conceived as a solar passive structure, using the walls as main insulation factor and cross ventilation to cool the interiors. The core of the building is a courtyard that provides the users a micro weather condition, cooling down the place with sea breeze flow. The use of Rammed Earth lattices in some walls also allows this natural air flow. Date and Coco palms and other trees are strategically planted to provide natural shade.