Sited within a palm grove just outside San José del Cabo, Mexico, Acre assumes unexpectedly contemporary form with its rammed-earth walls, created onsite from sand and soil. “We perform bioclimatic architecture and focus on the carbon footprint of each of our projects,” says Gonzalo Elizarraras, principal architect at FabrikG, the firm spearheading Acre’s design process. “Rammed earth is the most cost-effective technique in this area: earth, sand, and rocks are the main local supplies.” The freestanding walls provide natural passive solar cooling by encouraging cross-ventilation throughout the open-air dining space and insulating enclosed areas.
ISSUE 28 | MODERN OASIS
June 1, 2016 / Written by RACHEL GALLAHER / Images courtesy of ACRE
Two Vancouver entrepreneurs bring a Northwest ethos to their latest design: a farm-to-table restaurant amid a palm grove on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
The southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula is renowned for its Edenic beaches, cerulean waters, bold sunsets—and Cabo San Lucas’s rowdy bars and party crowd. But half an hour’s drive northeast sits the quiet, historic town of San José del Cabo. Vancouver entrepreneurs Cameron Watt and Stuart McPherson first visited San José four years ago and were so taken with its laid-back vibe and colonial architecture that they decided to move there and start a business.
They set stakes just outside San José, opening Acre—a modern farm-to-table restaurant and bar—in late 2015. “We wanted to create a place that reflects the surrounding landscape in an authentic way,” Watt says of the restaurant’s relationship to its surrounding 25 acres of farmland, lush with palms and mango trees. “It’s contemporary in design but respects traditional elements. We tapped into local sources wherever we could.”
After a series of setbacks, including cycling through several architects and a hurricane in 2014 that wiped out their initial construction efforts, Watt and McPherson recruited Gonzalo Elizarraras, principal architect at FabrikG, a Mexico City– and Berlin-based firm. Elizarraras was experienced in traditional regional building processes and in designing rammed-earth structures. Rammed earth—a building technique with ancient roots that compresses a mixture of soil, sand, and cement within a reinforced wood frame to create solid walls—has a very low environmental impact, as its materials are locally quarried and compressed onsite.
The majority of Acre is open air, set atop a 4-foot-thick poured-concrete foundation. Steel-framed pergolas shade the dining area, lined with sticks from the local palo de arco tree. Working closely with Watt, local firm Mar Studio Design equipped the space with furniture, glassware, and décor sourced exclusively from Mexico. Twig pendant lights, designed by Watt, emit a soft glow that adds to the restaurant’s subtropical vibe.
As part of its ecofriendly design plan, Elizarraras protected 99 percent of the site’s existing palm trees, pouring the foundation and creating openings in pergolas around the trees where necessary. The resulting look—as palms sprout serendipitously throughout the restaurant—adds to Acre’s quirky charm and reminds diners that they’re in the middle of a grove.
Guests encounter Acre by walking up a path from the parking lot. “You discover this restaurant,” explains Elizarraras.
“You don’t expect to find a building like this in the middle of a palm forest. But the surprise factor is part of its idea.” Acre’s contemporary architecture is a bold gesture in the middle of the Baja desert, but the design team’s respect for local culture and materials shake off any pretention. “We really love the area and want to reflect that love in both the design and the food,” Watt says. “It’s a special place—you just have to find it.”
Story originally published in Issue no. 28. Go there for more photos!
They set stakes just outside San José, opening Acre—a modern farm-to-table restaurant and bar—in late 2015. “We wanted to create a place that reflects the surrounding landscape in an authentic way,” Watt says of the restaurant’s relationship to its surrounding 25 acres of farmland, lush with palms and mango trees. “It’s contemporary in design but respects traditional elements. We tapped into local sources wherever we could.”
After a series of setbacks, including cycling through several architects and a hurricane in 2014 that wiped out their initial construction efforts, Watt and McPherson recruited Gonzalo Elizarraras, principal architect at FabrikG, a Mexico City– and Berlin-based firm. Elizarraras was experienced in traditional regional building processes and in designing rammed-earth structures. Rammed earth—a building technique with ancient roots that compresses a mixture of soil, sand, and cement within a reinforced wood frame to create solid walls—has a very low environmental impact, as its materials are locally quarried and compressed onsite.
The majority of Acre is open air, set atop a 4-foot-thick poured-concrete foundation. Steel-framed pergolas shade the dining area, lined with sticks from the local palo de arco tree. Working closely with Watt, local firm Mar Studio Design equipped the space with furniture, glassware, and décor sourced exclusively from Mexico. Twig pendant lights, designed by Watt, emit a soft glow that adds to the restaurant’s subtropical vibe.
As part of its ecofriendly design plan, Elizarraras protected 99 percent of the site’s existing palm trees, pouring the foundation and creating openings in pergolas around the trees where necessary. The resulting look—as palms sprout serendipitously throughout the restaurant—adds to Acre’s quirky charm and reminds diners that they’re in the middle of a grove.
Guests encounter Acre by walking up a path from the parking lot. “You discover this restaurant,” explains Elizarraras.
“You don’t expect to find a building like this in the middle of a palm forest. But the surprise factor is part of its idea.” Acre’s contemporary architecture is a bold gesture in the middle of the Baja desert, but the design team’s respect for local culture and materials shake off any pretention. “We really love the area and want to reflect that love in both the design and the food,” Watt says. “It’s a special place—you just have to find it.”
Story originally published in Issue no. 28. Go there for more photos!
