Project: Flora Farms Culinary Cottages
Architect/Land Planner: Dorman Associates
Location: Baja California, Mexico
Builder: The Verano Group
Developer: Flora Investments
Flora Farms Culinary Cottages is a project completed by Dorman Associates in Baja California, Mexico. Developer Patrick Greene has owned the farm for 18 years and, after running a successful development business that took him and his family as far as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the Greenes have returned home, turning their family farm into a retreat with vacation cottages, a restaurant, and a slower pace of life.
Chris Dorman says: We worked closely from its inception with Patrick Greene, the visionary developer of the Flora Farms Culinary Community, to create an integrated design build product that is unique in the Baja BCS area. Additional elements in the Community design include a Farm to Table restaurant and Live Work Units.
Located on 7 acres in Los Animas, Baja California Sur, the Culinary Cottages offer a unique opportunity to live on a working Organic Farm Community. Flora Farms Culinary Cottages is winner of the 2016 Gold Nugget Home of the Year Award and Grand Award Winner at Pacific Coast Builders Conference 2016
There are 10 Cottages, each built with Straw Bale construction to create highly-insulated comfortable farm cottages. Where possible, the Cottages are sited to optimize passive cooling techniques and bring indirect light into every room of the cottage.
The largely temperate climate allowed Dorman to move a significant percentage of the floor plan to a shaded veranda that hugs the cottage on two sides. Large-span double doors, clerestory windows, and a long run of glazing in the bedroom and bath help to reinforce connections to the outside.
Working with different building codes and custom-made materials manufactured on site allowed more freedom to use what Dorman refers to as some of the “oldest tricks in the book” for connecting spaces, such as continuing the same run of precast concrete flooring pavers inside and out onto the veranda to create an indoor/outdoor experience despite the largely solid walls.
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