A multi-generational family house built around a tropical garden. Beneath the garden, a secret room fills with water from a subterranean aquifer, providing water for the house and gardens throughout the year.
“The act of cutting the ground to build is extremely important. When you make the cut, something is revealed. Here, just a few tens of meters away from the sea, a sweet-water well was found. Sweet-water is balanced by the density of the saltwater and accumulates underground. We used this condition as the crux of the project. We worked with a master well-builder who has tacit knowledge of where to dig for water. He has developed this innate understanding of what lies underneath the ground, sensing his way to water with minute precision, without measuring tools. You can base your project on a sense and having faith in it, but you have to develop a practice for that sense. And that’s our whole idea of making things, of doing it again and again, until it becomes an intrinsic part of our thought and body. I call this sweet-water well the belly-button of the structure; a very large room with holes in the ceiling that lets light and rain enter. The room is a kind of clock that registers the movement of the moon and tide. One can know how high the tide is just by checking the level of water in it or looking at the marks on the wall that signify especially high ones – all without looking at the sea. From looking at the house’s plan, we see that it protects the belly-button; it is its foundation. Everything then responds to this one action of protecting this source of water. You have to go to the water, rather than having it come to you through pipes. You develop a relationship via sight, smell and condition, which in turn becomes a way of caring. This idea of care and consideration when making things is very important to us.”
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