Nice find statler -- wish I remembered my elementary school Spanish. This is certainly new organic architecture, but a more literal interpretation of what MLTW was on to at Sea Ranch.
Actually Mazzanti's project does a few things at the same time. There's a bit of
Corbu at Ronchamp, (siting, sculptural qualities, random windows) informed by
Koolhaas (the whittled cube) and
Herzon & de Meuron (forms and materials). I'll bet
Mazzanti's a fan of
Antoine Predock as well. Form and materials capture the nature of the site and attempt to be part of it. I wonder what the locals think of their library.
There's another way that architects can capture the landscape and draw it into their projects. This internalizes the view, and makes it part of the experience of the building, rather than mimicking landscape forms. This effect is frequently achieved using water and structure as framing devices for the view.
The spirit of this concept is Fallingwater. Wright "forced" the Kaufmanns to "live" with the waterfall,
thrusting the home's tray-like balconies over it, and
piercing the floor down to the surface of the stream. Wright's student
Alden Dow did something similar at
his own masterful home in Midland, Michigan, placing a study "in" a pond, so the bottoms of the windows are at eye-level from the interior, but
touch the surface of the pond from the exterior. The quality of light in the room is pretty cool.
John Lautner is rightfully known for using water as a device to capture and frame views. The
Arango House in Acapulco is the signature example.
