Tulum MOST Sustainable JUNGLE VILLA

Okay, so Pura is a project that I started creating four years ago and it is the result of a question that emerged in myself 20 years ago. When I finished studying architecture I realised that a lot of the practice, a lot of what we were doing was completely disconnected from humans, from what we really need and it was also completely disconnected from nature, from the natural environment and the idea is to continue doing these kinds of projects in different places around the world as many as we can and then connect a network of places that are done and used and experienced in this way. Okay, so Pura, the name Pura came from an exploration of a very creative mind together with us and we wanted to find a name that really concentrated what we're doing which is basically purifying, purifying ourselves, purifying the land, purifying the architecture and the procedures that we do, the relationships with the people and there's so many creative people that are contributing to this project so I think that the name is pure in itself also. This is the beginning of the exploration of a community of people, respecting all the individualities, there's no pretentiousness of anything, we all have the right to be whatever we want and however we want to do it but it is recognizing that as a group if we maintain these places alive and we love the places and we explore ourselves inside these places, this is I believe a new beginning that the world needs. This is a caimito tree, we planted this tree a year and a half ago in the full moon. This is a part of a hundred trees that we have planted already, it's part of the strategy of reproducing the soil, we use different techniques, permacultures in tropical agriculture. All these trees and another one of the fruit trees that we have planted it's called mamey, it's also a Mexican fruit, we Mexicans know it very well but also people who want to come to this region and try it, it's delicious and it's one of the champions from my perspective because it grows steadily, it grows fast and will give us a lot of fruit hopefully, beautiful This condition that we are experiencing right now is called, it's an inspiration that comes from Japan, it's called engawa and basically it's a condition where Japanese people meet socially so they have like the inside of the spaces but also when they meet in the traditional way they come out to the engawa which is something similar to this like about 45 centimeters from the ground and this is where they bring the tea and they exchange socially so that's one of the reasons but it really really helps for this region to raise a little bit the engawa, the terraces and also the buildings so that we have wind going, passing through on the underneath and also cooling the houses. At the same time I would say, at the same time it becomes a kind of a room, an outside room, it's a terrace, it's a corridor, the size of the terrace is designed in such a way you can actually stay and be in a lounge in different parts of the engawa and also discover organically where is the best place to be depending on the moment of the day, the sun comes out there then it sets on this side so it becomes a kind of an outside space to be and to enjoy different moments, different parts of the year. Okay so the engawa, this traditional condition, architectural condition from Japan implies that this is the floating terrace but also in order to be complete it needs another plane, another surface which is the first surface that covers us, people from the rain and the sun and the harsh conditions of the environment especially in a hot humid climate like this, it rains also very hard so we chose a material that allows the UV rays to stay out but also to still have light in these spaces, in this covered outside spaces. That comes from a place where it's certified, this wood, it's called sapote, it's one of the hardest woods in the region, it's also traditional from the Mayans, they take the chewing gum out of this wood and it's almost like concrete, it's really really solid and it's cut in a very responsible way, it was transformed, it was put in a kiln so that it took the humidity out so the whole process was really really careful in order to have this wood, all the wood that you see, so that it can last for probably decades or even over 100 years.