Feature Profile: A10 Studio

Re.evolution Lounge+Bar by A10 Studio

“…when architectural ideas mix with the everyday rationalisation and use of the city by its dwellers and flaneurs, great things can be accomplished”

Cabo San Lucas: Town of Two Halves

In the center of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the Re.evolution lounge+bar is a project that you’d most probably see in Miami or LA than in a touristy Mexican beach resort. It provides a breath of fresh air to the city nightlife, and has also unintentionally triggered a micro urban renewal in the neighbourhood.

Above:  El arco de Cabo San Lucas. (Image by Dave Park, 2004. Sourced from Wikipedia. Accessed 12/2009)

Above: Cabo San Lucas marina. An image of luxuary (Image by Dave Park, 2004. Sourced from Wikipedia. Accessed 12/2009)

Cabo San Lucas, a popular vacation spot and one of the places in Mexico with the greatest density of high-end resorts, presents two public faces. On one side it is a place of the highest luxury and style, captured in resort catalogues, creating the ‘vision’ of ‘traditional’ Mexico with palapas, colorful taco stands and mariachis. On the other side the town of Cabo San Lucas in its mere heart, reveals dusty streets, poverty, cheep local labour and a poor urban image, due to the negligence of urban planners.

Above: The Existing buildings presented a poor image of the town.

Brief

The “Re.evolution lounge+bar” project called for the remodeling of two different commercial spaces, joining them together into a restaurant and a lounge bar in downtown Cabo San Lucas. A10 Studio saw in this project the opportunity to meet the clients needs and transform the two existing ‘rough’ spaces into a comfortable and contemporary space for a restaurant and a lounge bar. A10 Studio sought to stand out from the expensive palapa-like bar that seems to be the general aesthetic for businesses in the area.

Play of Surfaces

The project explored the redefinition of the “ground”, the manipulation of the ground surface, transforming an element that carries a fixed code into an active field, complex and mutant. The ambiguity between the surface and the space, between bi-dimension and tri-dimension, is perhaps one of the constraints of the project as an alternative to the contrast between the ground and the architectural object.

Above: The play of surfaces (Photo: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design, 2009

The surface here is not only the envelope of space, but also what defines it, as it emerges in between the both of them as a close relationship. By exploring the ambiguity between ground and envelope, instead of opposing them, as is commonly done, A10 Studio exploited the indeterminacy that exists between them. With this, the architecture is not anymore just a vertical and active entity built on top of the horizontal and passive flat surface of the ground. Here the ground mutates into an active surface, a plane constructed from where architecture emerges as an unlikely fluctuating figure.

Above: Merging planes of the interior. (Photo: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design, 2009)

The Plan

The plan of the building comprises of a restaurant wing, with kitchen and services, and a bar wing. The two are interconnected and function as a whole, but can also be isolated and function independently as individual spaces if needed – is solved with a spatial loop with transgressive trajectories, with knots and crosses, links and virtual links, as well as overlapping messages which are attractors of activity intended to provoke multiple situations (junctions seeming impossible suddenly become possible) in open and closed spatial agencies at once. All these elements make the space feel like a single sleek surface folding into each other, the factor that enables lights to create different ambient, atmospheres and feelings with a mere change of color of the light.

Open the PDF of the plan

Above: The space in use

Terrace

One of the most striking and publicly acceptable elements of the Re.evolution lounge+bar is its terrace. Its idea derives from Mediterranean terraces in which the terrace becomes a main space of the project. Taking advantage of the Cabo San Lucas weather, (with an average of 350 sunny days a year) the shape of the sidewalk and limits of the site, the project allowed A10 Studio to pull the facade away from the sidewalk. This generated an enjoyable open space still part of the bar. This is now one of the favorite spots for people to hang out, and be seen.

Open the PDF section

Above : The terrace space (Photo: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design, 2009)

Constraints

The project had several constraints such as the low and non-equal walls of two adjacent business spaces; time to delivery; and budget limits amongst other things. These were successfully overcome with creative use of locally available materials such as PVC water pipes, used to create a shade over the terrace…etc. With a budget of $ 50,000 USD and 3 months time from concept to completion, including design, remodeling, construction, interior design and opening, A10 Studio  has created an attractive and contemporary entertainment spot with a style more likely to be seen in the popular areas of Miami as opposed to downtown Cabo San Lucas.

Above: Contemporary entertainment space (Photo: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design)

The Re.evolution lounge+bar is creating a buzz by bringing style, contemporary architecture and design to downtown Cab. Furthermore it has created a micro urban renewal after neighbours realised the added value of putting design to work for them and their businesses. Owners have started painting their facades, or even planning to remodel their own businesses, therefore improving the overall image of this part of the city.

As Mariano Arias-Diez principal of a10studio says:

“These are the kind of things you hardly realise when you do a project, but then, when architectural ideas mix with the everyday rationalisation and use of the city by its dwellers and flaneurs, great things can be accomplished”.

Above: Contemporary entertainment space (Photo: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design)

The project allowed a contemporary space for local entertainment and nightlife, but also triggered a much-needed evolution of the urban image of the very heart of still rural Cabo San Lucas.

PROJECT DATA

Architectural project: a10studio principal in charge: Mariano Arias-Diez

Type: Commercial, restaurant and lounge bar

Location: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Area: 198.50 m2

Project year: 2009

Date of completion: September 2009

Client: JDFA S. DE R.L.

Time to completion: 3 months status: completed

CONSULTANTS:

Graphics and logos: LA76 strategic design

Structural engineer: Ing. Jacobo Perez-Valle / OBRA Metalica

Lighting design: a10studio audio+acoustics: Daniel Bradley / Expo Cabo

General contractor: Fernando Hernandez / AMP

Windows + glass: Vidrios San Marcos, CSL

PHOTOS

Construction photos: a10studio

Final images: Romana Lilic + Onairam Saira / LA76 strategic design

Read the A10 Studio blog here

Thanks to Mariano Arias-Diez of A10 Studio. Additional editing by Robert Pike

Related Articles

Discovering Latin America Film Festival/ Carnaval del Pueblo

Architectural Association Summer Exhibition

Jamie MTZ Photography