Casa La Vista by Medeza
Casa La Vista stands above the dunes of Baja California, Mexico, as a cliffside house oriented to the open horizon and the meeting of sky and sea. Designed by Medeza, the residence stretches along a southeast axis that courts desert light, coastal winds, and long views toward San José and Punta Gorda. Across its wings, the architecture arranges daily life around shade, courtyards, and an unmistakably Baja terrain.
Stone volumes emerge from the dunes and pause at the cliff’s edge, their earthy tones echoing the surrounding desert. Morning light grazes the southeast façades, pulling the eye toward the horizon where sky and sea meet in a steady line.
Casa La Vista is a house in Baja California, Mexico, conceived by Medeza as a residence that answers directly to desert climate and coastal exposure. The project arranges three wings along a longitudinal axis, using a large protective roof as its defining element and its primary shade-maker. Across this arrangement, daily life unfolds between interior rooms, outdoor courts, and a landscape drawn from the endemic vegetation that already inhabits the site.
At the heart of the composition stands the roof, understood less as cover and more as organizing armature. Its generous plane gathers the different wings beneath a shared horizon, tempering sun and framing long, oblique views toward the coast. Under this broad shelter, circulation follows the central axis, so that walking from one wing to another always registers shifts in breeze, light, and temperature.
Arrange Wings Around Desert
The house unfolds into three clear wings, all tied by the same linear spine. Two wings hold five bedrooms, each one oriented to catch light while remaining protected by overhangs and stone walls. Between them, a desert garden draws people outdoors, inviting slow movement, quiet conversation, and solitary pauses. This open court leads toward the social wing, where shared rooms gather at the end of the axis and the desert garden finds its culmination.
Work With Harsh Climate
The extreme conditions of Baja demand more than thick walls; they call for a calibrated relationship between inside and outside. Deep overhangs cast reliable shade across glazing and terraces, cutting glare while allowing indirect light to wash interiors. When large openings slide away, cross-ventilation flows along the central axis and through inner courtyards, washing over stone and plantings before entering the rooms. Heat softens as air moves, and the architecture reads as a mediator between cliff, desert, and sea air.
Anchor Volumes With Stone
Construction relies on stone from the nearby Santa Catarina quarry, binding the house chromatically to its surroundings. Exterior walls share the earthy tones of the desert, so built form and landscape meet without a hard visual break. Within the social wing, Puebla travertine lines the walls, bringing a lighter, more luminous surface that contrasts with the warmer Ojinaga stone underfoot and overhead. Unstained Rosa Morada wood carpentry introduces a quieter texture, its natural color allowed to age in step with the sun.
Compose Endemic Gardens
All planting is endemic, carefully transplanted from the immediate ecosystem rather than imported. Shrubs, cacti, and grasses are set in deliberate rhythms along paths, courts, and edges, guiding movement from bedroom wings to the social heart. Vegetation modulates shade, breaks wind at key points, and animates each court with subtle shifts of color and density. Over time, this living layer ties the stone volumes even more tightly to the surrounding desert ground.
By day, the house reads as an extension of the cliff, its stone surfaces catching the same sun as the dunes below. At quieter hours, light softens under the broad roof, and the courtyards hold a measured stillness. In that balance of exposure and shelter, Casa La Vista maintains a calm atmosphere that remains firmly rooted in the Baja desert and its coastal horizon.
Photography by Cesar Belio
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