Hotel and Nautical Club

Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Tucumán

Project idea

The aim of the project is to design a Hotel and Nautical Club in the “Cabra Corral” Dam located in the Province of Salta, Argentina. Contemplating man’s intervention in an exceptional landscape characterized by the presence of a large water mirror surrounded by angular mountains, thus favoring an architecture of simple lines that highlights the majestic landscape.

Project description

The chosen terrain to design the project is a land extension, which links a sector of the perilage with an islet and has a distance of 140 m. The proposed architecture responds to the needs of the site and adapts to the changes that the land suffers due to the growth of the dam in rainy season.
The project consists of enabling the coastal edge of the dam's western sector and connecting it to the existing islet through the creation of a linear park, a building and bungalows.
The design includes the development of many activities related to lodging, water sports, recreation and landscape contemplation.

Technical information

The man’s interventions in natural spaces influence the environment, affecting both the landscape as well as the natural species that inhabit it. For this reason this project seeks to create an architecture that adapts and respects the natural environment.
The main challenge was to design a building in a land that undergoes changes due to the growth of the dam in rainy season. Because of this, the main element of the project is WATER, which is used as an architectural resource to contain spaces.
Morphologically the building has three volumes, two of which were designed to be able to stay underwater during rainy season, and a third one is a raised volume built over the water.
The volumes that must remain underwater have an outer enclosure of 15 cm thickness laminated glass to endure the water thrust. It has a reinforced concrete columns structure. The floor is a technical raced floor that allows hiding the facilities, and has a gutter system to avoid flooding inside the building. The roof is composed of metal beams, forged steel deck and a water cover that protects from solar radiation and allows to maintain a cooler indoor environment, it also has perimeter gutters that evacuate rainwater. In parts this roof has skylights that allow natural light to enter the spaces. In addition, it has an artificial air conditioning and thermal acclimatization system.
The raised volume is supported by reinforced concrete walls-partition and its main structure is two post-tensed concrete beams. The floor and ceiling are solved with prestressed hollow slab. The outer enclosure is a curtain wall and a double rust-colored metallic skin whose function is to prevent the sky reflection to avoid birds from getting confused and not colliding with the building.
On the other hand, it was thought to implant aquatic vegetation species forming wetlands in the dam, due to the innumerable ecosystem services they provide. Among them, flood and droughts control; oxygen contribution to the atmosphere, carbon dioxide capture, refuge and subsistence of plant and animal species, and wastewater self-purification.