Soná House

A 100-year-old heritage house with rammed-earth walls and a crumbling roof became part of the Ekawa territory in 2022. Not having worked with heritage structures in the past, it felt like a huge challenge to conceive a renovation project. We were eager to learn about conservation of rammed-earth, and to design a bamboo-roof that could bring back to life this irreplaceable structure.

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The four rooms of the house are majestic in scale, and yet felt damp and gloomy in their enclosed ambiance. After several design iterations that imagined a second story, we had a sudden moment of insight: what if our starting point was the creation of a giant oculus over each room, to illuminate the textured inner spaces with celestial light?

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The design began to emerge as four structural cupolas, woven from interlaced bamboo splits, with large petal-shaped openings towards the sky. Embodying the intention for the roof to feel as though it grows from the rammed-earth walls, we imagined an expansive structure of bamboo poles that is supported by the cupolas and reaches out to a perimeter beam. This flowing roof holds space for open kitchen, dining and living areas, with a wide corridor surrounding the house.

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With views to ancient bamboo groves in the San Blas Valley, Casa Soná is becoming the centre of the Bamboo Sanctuary; home of the Bamboo Lab Generations and other lifestyle experiences at Ekawa.