Articles by Benjamin Zapico

Part of Casa Wabi’s foundation mission is to encourage, and generate knowledge and new skills in the children in the region.

This project is part of a long process of research and experiences on the constructive possibilities offered by wood, seeking interesting spatial results, structurally efficient, environmentally friendly, and economically viable.

A hybrid of agriculture and domesticity, the greenhouse is a Siamese scenario for plant and human life. Two adjacent bodies are perfectly asymmetrical twins: half greenhouse and half exterior living room. Their contiguity favors a certain symbiosis between two dissimilar functions: an interior for plants and an exterior for people. This relationship between the living room and the greenhouse creates a microclimate that conditions the open living room throughout the year. Fruit goes to the table; hands clean the leaves.

A land with a significant slope, filled with pine and oak trees and covered by a green mantle of spring, was what we found the first time we visited the place. An environment to respect and enhance. With its own identity and characteristics. It’s beautiful when the site suggests from the beginning the place the house should occupy. The clearing of light between the pines even drew its dimension, marking its boundaries that did not grow with the desire to maintain all the trees and alter the terrain as little as possible. Therefore, the structure starts from the natural level, supported on a wall from which a strutted cantilever originates. From there, you can enjoy the views of the privileged pine forest that we already intuited, during the pleasant picnics we had in what now occupies the terrace. In it, a gap is cut to let the trunk of a pine tree pass.

It is a hotel located on the big island of Chiloé, inspired by rural settlements and Patagonian ranches, which provides a shelter to contemplate the extreme and changing climate of Chiloé’s landscapes. The Estancia is located on the Rilan peninsula, known for its winding green meadows, views of the channels and islands of the Chiloé archipelago, and small rural villages with a country lifestyle.

The house is located in the Nuñez neighborhood, in a lot between party walls sixteen meters deep. The house takes the entire length of the lot and is structured around two patios.  The access courtyard resolves the transition with the street and the backyard resolves the lighting and ventilation conditions of the spaces in the quiet part of the building. The arrangement of the patios, facing but out of date, and a wooden piece of furniture, organize the social spaces on the ground floor.

In the southwest of the city of Puebla, Mexico, at the foot of the Atoyac River, lies La Carmela, one of two hydroelectric plants that provided service to the Textile Factory El Mayorazgo in the early 20th century, built by Engineer Carlos Mastretta Fecit.

The development of the Archipelago Author Houses project, which includes the construction of twelve homes designed by twelve architecture studios, also includes the construction of a small pavilion in the forest of Estancia La Paz.

Tropical pile-dwellings and floating greenhouse for floodable communities. The floating orchard is conceived as micro floating and piled equipment that reflects on new possibilities of food production, adaptable for floodable communities, revaluing local and innovative techniques to respond to the effects of climate change, as well as the development of sustainable-resilient cities and communities.