Mexican firm CDM has embedded a beachfront cabana and swimming pool into a rugged hillside covered in vegetation and overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The project, SJA III, is nestled into a rocky hillside in the town of San Juan de Alima, on the western coast of Mexico. Rather than intruding upon the landscape, the cabana and swimming pool are meant to feel integrated into the site, which is blanketed with vegetation, and slopes down toward a beach and the sea.

"With this idyllic scenario, imposing the programme upon the site as if it had fallen almost randomly resulted devoid of a true significance," said CDM, an architecture studio based in the Mexican city of Zapopan.

"The somewhat unconnected roofing structure of a palapa was rethought into a cover that would extrude from the mountain itself towards the ocean, while the water should flood the stone to generate the pool, almost in a way of a pond remaining after the turning tides."
The cabana consists of rectangular volume topped with a thick, overhanging roof, with ivy dripping over the edge. The flat roof is intended to do more than shelter the building.
"The cover is a mutable space that transforms into a true viewpoint overlooking the immensity of the horizon during the daytime, and an observatory for the stars at night time, favoured by its distant position from artificial light sources," the team said.

Inside, the cabana offers a comfy place to relax and take refuge from sun. Carame...