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Collection by Diana Budds

An El Salvador Beach House with an Interior Courtyard

By eliminating walls and incorporating a series of interior gardens, architect José Roberto Paredes creates an eclectic and inspired El Salvador beach house.

Architect José Roberto Paredes’s signature structures connect people with their environments. For a seaside house at the northern end of El Salvador’s coast, the same holds true. Tasked with creating a simple, elegant retreat with a mix of aesthetic details, Paredes divided the 4,000-square-foot house into “islands of activity.” He left the main living space—which has zones for cooking, dining, and lounging—open to the elements, an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean on one side, and a swimming pool on the other. Since his clients love to make meals together, Paredes placed the kitchen in the center of the room and outfitted it with a custom yellow hood and a prismatic wood sliding wall by the San Salvador–based designers Claudia & Harry Washington. Paredes interspersed interior gardens by the local firm Organika to further integrate the house into the surrounding landscape. “A home should not be invented entirely by one person,” Paredes says. “It should be a collection of thoughts and experiences. Collaborating with different designers and artists is the perfect way to create this eclectic feeling.”

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By eliminating walls and incorporating a series of interior gardens, architect José Roberto Paredes creates an eclectic and inspired El Salvador beach house. In the kitchen, rough-hewn materials like a eucalyptus-log-and-thatch roof offset the monolithic concrete island and glossy subway tile backsplash. Claudia & Harry Washington built the vivid wooden sliding walls, which are inspired by the palm leaves that change color and create diagonal patterns in trees near the house. The bar stools were a street market discovery.
By eliminating walls and incorporating a series of interior gardens, architect José Roberto Paredes creates an eclectic and inspired El Salvador beach house. In the kitchen, rough-hewn materials like a eucalyptus-log-and-thatch roof offset the monolithic concrete island and glossy subway tile backsplash. Claudia & Harry Washington built the vivid wooden sliding walls, which are inspired by the palm leaves that change color and create diagonal patterns in trees near the house. The bar stools were a street market discovery.
Architect José Roberto Paredes calls the sliding walls utilitarian artwork. “The doors open to a surprise space, like a secret pathway,” he says.
Architect José Roberto Paredes calls the sliding walls utilitarian artwork. “The doors open to a surprise space, like a secret pathway,” he says.
The guest room occupies the least favorable corner of the house, so Paredes designed an interior garden featuring driftwood combed from the beach to give the space something special. An American Standard sink and Hansgrohe faucet rest atop a custom vanity.
The guest room occupies the least favorable corner of the house, so Paredes designed an interior garden featuring driftwood combed from the beach to give the space something special. An American Standard sink and Hansgrohe faucet rest atop a custom vanity.
In the main bedroom, the beds are built in, the walls are concrete, the ceiling fan is by Westinghouse, and the pendant light was fashioned from an extension cord.
In the main bedroom, the beds are built in, the walls are concrete, the ceiling fan is by Westinghouse, and the pendant light was fashioned from an extension cord.