Nestled in the mountains surrounding Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, “Cardedeu” maximizes the opportunities of an open event space in a setting of privileged natural beauty with spectacular views. We complemented it with a chapel, a restaurant, a hotel and various support spaces.
We created an informal reticular pattern with the goal of revealing the Project, In the entrance to the coplex we limited the user’s view to the lake, suggesting only a small portion of the enviroment, and thus setting an intention that permeates the entire Project, This invites the user to explore the entire program and its surroundings.
We generated a series of different relationships between the built and natural, disolving in some cases the boundaries between the interior and exterior.
Furthermore, the use of local materials tied the Project to the materiality of the area. Subsequently, the introduction of foreign materials, such as concrete and Steel, allowed us to créate structures that are projected over the terrain and generate floating sensations between the trees, and even fly over the lake.
The chapel was intended as a scene for the landscape and handled as a unique space developed with a single material, conrete, to highlight the lake and mountains. It is like an extruded box where the two ends are removed, leaving a permanent cross ventilation. The structure is simple, emphasized by a single column, shaped as “The Cross”, the protagonist of the chapel.
