2023 - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Landscape: Entorno Taller de Paisaje

2023 - Nosara, Costa Rica

Surrealism aims to revolutionize human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. Finding magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional.

2022 - La Jolla CA.

Renders by Ver3D

2022 - La Jolla CA.

The Cove /kōv/

noun

a small concave sheltered bay.

Renders by Ver3D

2021 - Somerville, MA.

Photography: Rafael Gamo

CALA.live

Community-Architecture-Landscape-Art

2020 - Somerville, MA

In collaboration with MarKa

Landscape: GroundView

Structural: Foley Buhl Roberts & Assoc.

Green Roofs: Recover Green Roofs

General Contractor: Kaplan Construction

Photography: Rafael Gamo

C ommunity

Invite the people and organizations that make each community unique to take part in the development of a project from its conception stage. Developing the social structure of a space in parallel to the physical environment is crucial to creating a place that is engaging.

A rchitecture

Design to maximize open green space within dense urban environments through the integration of Landscape, Architecture, and Art, and a passion for environments that encourage human engagement.

L andscape

Projects are conceived around the idea of green space. Open green space is essential to creating vital urban communities that are socially, psychologically, physically, and nutritionally beneficial for people of all ages and abilities.

A rt

We understand art as a vital form of expression that is critical to both defining and strengthening communities. Our projects look for spaces as an integral medium for the arts, providing opportunities to create and experience art.

ca la

/,kah’la, , kaa’la /

noun

1. A respectful and delicate incision or carving within a valuable organism. Origin: Spanish

2. Small sea cluster surrounded by rocks; cove. Origin: Spanish

3. ‘Bride’, special holiday, event or a novel, exquisite concept. Origin: Hebrew

2018 - Mexico City

In collaboration with Alfonso Frade

Landscape: Sebastian Mariscal & Alfonso Frade

Construction: FradeLab

Text: Oscar Ramírez

Photography: Rafael Gamo

Casa Zenteno began with a deep study of our client's needs, the context and site restrictions. Located on the west side of the city, within a private residential development, introspection and best sunlight conditions were some of the main objectives. 

The façade as a continous light screen, seems to reveal the interior, but only diffuses it. 

As you approach the entrance, a compact space, a wooden box, leads you to a double height space displayed as a pavilion. Walls are detached from its vertices, not touching, the carved out spaces play an effect of multiple depths of light. 

The roof, as a solid shell, contracts at the top of the screen-wall allowing the light to flood the space, revealing the container of the bougainvillea above, that freely delineates and softens the main façade. Vestibule, living room and study intertwine as a single space, from here, your wondring eye takes you to a sequence of materials, one leads to the next as they merge along your path. 

Walls contract and expand as you move and as the level changes, it invites you to pause and lower your eyes to discover each space.

In the site, three architectural characters with their own identity, although sequential, contain the garden for intimacy.

In the background another screen, now in wood, keeps the intimate space of the master bedroom with a pitch roof while along with the garden´s vegetation filters the terrain stepping down to the basement and the service areas.
Casa Zenteno resembles a piece of clothing, as a suit of various textiles, composed by a set of pieces of exposed concrete, brick and wood assembled with a sinuous and detailed embroidery. 

(2013)-2019 - Boston, MA - Unbuilt

In collaboration with MarKa

The Boston Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) and Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) selected SMS's proposal for a mixed-use development as the winning entry of the most recent and ambitious RFP to come out of BDPA's E+ Building Program, a series of RFPs that seek to demonstrate the feasibility of energy positive developments within the Boston area. The proposal shall be energy positive and achieve LEED Platinum.

In addition to its sustainability, the proposal is unique in the amount of open green space it provides. The design offers + 50,000 s.f. of open green space, an area roughly equal to the footprint of the site, in the form of a rooftop community roof garden and solar farm, 5 community courtyards, and 51 private gardens / patios.

2018 - La Jolla, CA.

Landscape: Marcie Harris Landscape

Photography: Paul Rivera

A humble path seductively leads to a filtered stonewall with a mysterious presence. There are no windows and no reference to any grand entrance. Rather, a dense and naturally grown vegetated surroundings filtering the house, to its almost disappearance. A door opens to discover an exterior space. The ground is sunken below the entrance level to contain a pond teeming with lilies, lotuses, and koi. A floating bridge guides us to a crafted space beyond and the absence of railings initiates an awareness and intimate dialogue of oneself with the architecture. The sound of gurgling water slows one’s attention to nature’s pace as the swimming koi create a dance of color below one’s feet. The enclosure beyond, crafted with rich warm Mahogany contrasts the stone and natural vegetation, creating a welcoming feeling. A sliding door reveals a sequence of flawless interior and exterior experiences based on natural conditions of space, light and airflow.

A subtle, yet deep-rooted relationship with nature is made evident, as the individual is removed from a public context into a more intimate one and is allowed to exist in an environment of silence, reflection, and peace.

The interior homage to nature is permeated to its exterior, as the house’s roofs are filled with vegetation (and a portion with solar panels), creating a vegetated fifth façade for the uphill neighbors and blurring the house with the golf course field and the ocean in its horizon.

2018 - Somerville, MA

Photography: Rafael Gamo

2018 - Cambridge, MA

Photography: Rafael Gamo

Garden House is a new construction project that was part of a renovation of a late-19th century house in Cambridgeport, Cambridge, MA. The old house was restored and brought back to its original footprint by removing later additions, which freed up land in the back for the Garden House. All the materials from demolition were reclaimed and re-used in the Garden House, with the intention to create a wabi-sabi atmosphere. Built in four stories, the small footprint of the house opens the four facades to gardens, keeping privacy and maximizing the sun light. Each space of a single-use and with a unique light and space quality, nests the habitants contracting during the cold weather and expanding by integrating to the gardens in celebration to the warmer months, as well as experiencing the New England seasons. The abundant gardens are multiplied on each floor, where views from the rooms frame the vegetation. Living around garden and merging into the interior spaces, brings an oasis of calmness amongst the whispers of nature.

2013 - Venice, CA

Model by Andre Movsesyan

Photography: Yoshi Koitani, Michael Sylvester

This design combines the concepts of "Interior/Exterior Living" that take into account human interaction and space & energy reduction. This is achieved through the integration of strategically placed outdoor rooms that create harmonious transitions from inside to out.

2013 - Boston, MA - Unbuilt

A project for the car-free community.

Located within an Allston neighborhood inundated with surface parking lots and paved streetscapes, SMS proposed a 44 unit mixed-use development that eliminated car parking in favor of 18,000 s.f. of public and private green space, an area that roughly equals the footprint of the site.

Human experience was the primary focus of the design. This was explored for the individual through the deepening of his/ her connection to nature within the context of an urban environment.

It was also considered for the larger community, who are free to gather in the plaza to watch an outdoor movie or just pass through on an evening walk. Encompassing a pedestrian friendly philosophy in the design, this project included a zero-parking proposal.

2012 - Cardiff, CA

Landscape: Rana Creek

Lighting: CLL. Concept Lighting Lab

Builder: RGB Group

Photography: Yoshi Koitani

The design process started as an emotional path of discovery, where the house starts to exist, as your walk builds the walls and your breathing lets the space contract and expand. Like music, the emotion of the unknown note keeps you intrigued and the contrast of lows, highs and silences, invites the awareness of different human sensations to connect to our own spirit.

From the street, the concrete house whispers through a dense veil of wild vegetation, growing from every open space carved out in the house, to invite nature live within.

The spaces are organized to sense unique contrasting experiences, by creating independent volumes separated by sublime light at the seams, that with its natural movement caresses the house surfaces.

A house of introspection, setting the elements for light and darkness, mystery and emotion, all orchestrated by the forgotten silence that will let us hear our inner selves once again.

2011 - Woodstock, NY - Unbuilt

In collaboration with Jeff Svitak

Renders: Fernando Iribarren

2015 - Del Mar, CA - Unbuilt

Renders: Visual Caramel

The site feels a world apart from its surroundings, appearing as a plateau among a series of craftsman style houses and bungalows. Located at the back of the site, the house is concealed from the street. A veiled and layered entry sequence affords visitors space to transition from the immediate neighborhood. Water, silence, and vegetation are utilized to create a magical,
introspective path of discovery.

Arriving to the house at the foot of the bluff, visitors enter a column-less portico that holds an impossibly wide view of the horizon. From this space, the plateau appears to continue into the ocean, hiding all traces of the neighborhoods below. Aside from a small wooden yoga pavilion, the land is open, covered only by water and vegetation. The portico links the living spaces of the house together, always bringing the life of the house back to the view.

The frontal openness of the portico is balanced by a series of patios and gardens that break the massing of the house and anchor it to the bluff. These patios and gardens act as filters and points of connection between the interior living spaces, each of which exhibits a unique character. With each room fully opening onto an exterior space, residents feel as though they are truly living outdoors. Architecture and landscape are integrated at every turn to create a house that can gracefully accommodate a wide range of activities, from early morning meditations, to weekend parties with extended family and friends.

2009 - New York, NY

Photography: Paul Rivera

The discovery of a finely crafted wooden box set into an existing building on 10th Ave. immediately defines the initial intentions of this design: mystery, discovery, and contradiction. Once inside, the experience is no longer defined by the relationship of the restaurant with New York City; here the magic belongs to a fantastical experience that is characteristic of Latin America.

2009 - San Diego, CA

As part of the exhibit Mix: Nine San Diego Architects and Designers, Sebastian Mariscal Studio submitted this work, an "artists passageway". The placement of wood framing dividing one room in two emphasizes the depth of the rooms and passageway, and provides some fun for those going through the exhibit space.

2009 - Tijuana, Mexico

Landscape: Marcie Harris Landscape

Photography: Rebecca Wilson, Dario Alvarez & Kuo Pao Lian

This "learning center" was designed to provide the community with a place of calm and reflection in the center of busy Tijuana. The wood paneling facade offers a contrast to the soft concrete interior, which is accompanied by a reflection pool and garden space flanked with "introspection" rooms. Designed so that all natural light interacts with the building from above versus at eye level, this building is the perfect place for quiet self evaluation.

As one moves through the space, dark corridors dull the senses until reaching the upper level, where light creeps in and invites you to the lush green roof. Laden with native plants, a balcony sits at the edge of the green space allowing one to take in the smells of the rosemary bushes and sights of the neighborhood.

2008 - Calrlsbad, CA

Landscape: Marcie Harris Landscape

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

A subtle, yet deep-rooted relationship with nature is made evident at Wabi, as the individual is removed from an exterior context and is allowed to exist in an environment of silence, reflection, and peace.

2008 - Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico

Anchored in the natural and sophisticated palette of Laja Restaurant's cuisine, El Casco architecture complements the dining experience by providing subtle interventions, enhanced by the spatial qualities of the natural surroundings, creating a "succulent source of enjoyment".

2007 - Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

Inspired by the owner's wine recipe (1/3 Cabernet, 1/3 Barbera, 1/3 Petit Syrah), the linear design of this "wine lab" is comprised of three main spaces that open completely to the outside and bring natural ventilation into the building. The materiality of the structure reflects the rough yet sophisticated process of wine production. The rusted steel exterior and the white acrylic interior skin contrast the raw natural environment with the refined end product.

2008 - La Jolla, CA

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

Six is a quintessentially Southern California housing scheme that builds on a legacy of seamless connections between house and garden. The real genius of Six is that it accomplishes this with such a deceptively simple construction.

2006 - San Diego, CA

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

Within the urban context, the building exists as dual volumes separated by an interior courtyard of bamboo and light. The wood frame structure receives a floating exterior skin of engineered stone and rusted steel that is separated by an internal air chamber, providing thermal and acoustic insulation. Spatially, the residences offer a quiet respite within the city core. Materially, the dark stone, the steel and the Ipe wood accentuate the diverse urban fabric of San Diego.

2006 - La Jolla, CA

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

2004 - Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

This weekend single-family dwelling is located in the Valley of Guadalupe in Baja California, Mexico. The valley, known for its wine production, is surrounded by amber-colored mountains and pierced by dirt roads continuously winding between vineyards and olive trees.

With the olive trees extending to the house, we generated the first element - a stone curtain, 54 m long and 3m high, with a few perforations that frame the views on the other side of this semi-public boundary. The connection between spaces is always outside, so that the natural surroundings define the boundaries of the house and provide a changing sensory experience between day and night, cold and hot.

2003 - San Diego, CA

Photography: Hisao Suzuki

The Billboard Lofts stands in the Downtown / Little Italy area of San Diego, California. This project pushes the boundaries of urban density offering 24 units and a garage in the space of a 6,900 square foot corner lot. Organized along two 17-foot high corridors with a stair on each end, the low-rise building is divided into two main volumes.

2002 - San Diego, CA

Photography: Hisao Suzuki, Hewitt & Garrison & Robert Zeballos

In the heart of one of San Diego's premier redeveloping areas, Little Italy, 'State and Date' consists of two homes that occupy a 1550 square foot corner lot. The site was subdivided into two equal sized lots, 25 ft by 31 ft, where the 2,750 square foot homes now exist. This project was fully completed in a four month time period.