Al Suave House

We received the client’s email in spring of 2021. A little bit before Covid hit, and after a sabbatical, our base moved to Spain, and made it harder to travel. But after a few emails back and forth, we decided to meet in El Salvador. My first travel in two years after deciding on a change in my lifestyle. I showed up nervously in flip flops and was relieved when I saw the client walking in barefoot! He had a story to tell.
20 years ago Matt, now in his 40’s and living in L.A. took an expedition from his hometown Jersey City, New Jersey to Costa Rica to explore the tropical country and catch some waves. The country had become a destination amongst surfers. In one of his stops, Guatemala, someone recommended going through El Salvador, a destination most people skipped because of its reputation. He was assured that on the contrary, he would find kind people. And because of its tough reputation, he would find beaches with great waves, still unspoiled by tourism. As a curious traveller he decided to follow the advice and visit El Salvador. Matt never reached Costa Rica.
On his way through El Salvador, he came to a surf town called El Zonte, or as the locals called it, Pueblo Loco (Crazy Town). He found a community with dreams, a mix between locals and people in their twenties that had moved from the capital, San Salvador, to follow their passion, surfing, and expats from around the world putting down roots.
Matt immediately connected with the community, and wished to become a part of it. A few weeks after he had arrived, one of the locals pointed him out to a property, which he decided to buy on the spot!
Some time later, after visiting frequently, and bringing his friends over, he dreamt of building a house there. At some point, he saw an article in Dwell magazine about a house in El Salvador and decided that at some point, Concopatasalgato was going to design his house. The house he saw was the house that I had designed for my own family in El Salvador many years before.
Time passed, Matt formed a family and this dream was left in the back of his mind as responsibilities grew and his family became his number one priority.
In 2020 Covid-19 hit, and we were all confined. We all dreamed of open spaces, being surrounded by nature and fresh air. Matt packed his bags, and took his number one priority, his family to that beach in an unspoiled paradise he had found in his 20’s, El Zonte. Matt and his family spent a month there and found his old friends, now in their 40’s, still living their dreams. Now, all business owners, managers, in a place that was slowly transforming. At that point, he decided it was time to develop that dream project for his family. He contacted us.
From there on, our conversations turned toward dreams of the future: the care for family, the need to reconnect with oneself, with nature, and with surfing. He remembered his time spent on the property with hammocks tied around the palm trees in a triangular set-up to be able to talk, or moving his chair around to find that perfect reading spot in the shade of the trees while watching the ocean, and enjoying the breeze. “Surfing is about what happens between wave and wave,” he recited from one of his favorite books, Barbarian Days by William Finnegan.
It was exactly what he wanted to provide to his family, that space between the waves, where everything stops. He also wanted to provide one thing that was missing in order for every person to enjoy being there, a feminine energy, since the town was built mostly by surfer dudes from the 90s and 00s.
When we visited the property, the long and narrow lot (240ft x 65ft) had become the parking lot for his friend's hotel next door, where he stayed in exchange when he visited. But a big green grass area was kept at his request, full of palm trees, and a gigantic Ceiba (the tree of the Mayan Gods) poised in the middle. Because of its new function, the property became a connection from the center of the town to the beach.
After the visit, we interviewed each member of the family and tried to put all their dreams, plus the breeze, the trees, the shade, the perfect reading spot, the view of the surf, the time between wave and wave, and mix it all together to create the space to reconnect with their soul or spirit (the anima, or feminine side according to the ancient Greeks,) while still being a connection point with the street, the beach, the community, and its surroundings.
The project was developed in collaboration with Paula Cabrera, the CEO of Pepe Cabrera, an architecture and interior design company based in Denia and Valencia in Spain, our new location. Together we went through the interviews, and while being quarantined after getting covid while traveling back to Spain, we had plenty of time to dream.
We were inspired by the fenced paths to the beach since the land had a natural flow of water, air shaped by the trees and the cars and the people that walked through it. We wanted the construction to provide privacy for that refuge of the soul but we also wanted to invite people in, visitors and friends.
We added the textures of the materials used in the constructions around it. We wanted it to be part of the community, a connection point. So we thought about bringing the beach inside the property, the water, the sand, and the rocks that characterize this beach at some point in the year, and drive it all the way to the street.
We decided to split the construction into two long strips that swiveled through the plot to let this happen, and then divided the spaces into pavilions to open up the views and bring in the breeze. The constructions were set close to the borders to provide intimacy and adopted its neighbors' straight lines. In the middle, the natural path, the trees, and the flow of the water, shaped the house, opening up where the ceiba stands and where the water concentrated to create an introverted space of reconnection and for the family to share, and when ready, a flow to the beach to connect with friends and the community.
Each pavilion was designed to provide each family member's dream. For the kids a sense of a treehouse to play, explore, and be kids. For the friends, a wish to return, so one guest room opens up to the Pacific. And one opens up to the tropical landscape to give guests an opportunity to wish to experience one or the other in their next visit. For Matt, the perfect reading spot. For the family, a space to connect and share. For the community, a space for a second project, a community wellness center.
The house is a mix of a surfer’s family dream, tropical architecture, and European comfort and style. It brings together artisanal products from local designers with furniture from brands like Carl Hansen and Sons, Gandia Blasco, Diabla, Nani Marquina and Mogg; local clay for the walls with travertine floors, treated pine from Honduras, with basalt from a local quarry. The colors are soft, the textures natural, the overall feeling breezy, peaceful.
Something that came from good conversations, to collaborate, to connect different cultures and ways of seeing life, became a space to spend the time between wave and wave “al suave”, a salvadoran slang to relax, at ease. Now the space is shared for a collective of dreamers to experience this feeling.