Reproduced by special permission of the publisher and author. The climatic contrast between mexico's high-altitude cities on the Central Plateau and the coastal resorts which line the Pacific Coast is dramatic. A quick thirty minute flight on Mexicana transports the modern traveler from a cool, temperate environment to one of tropical humidity and a landscape of palms, jungle, and thatched palapa roofs. Mexico is blessed with over 2,000 miles of Pacific coastline, with an endless variety of rocky headlands and sandy beaches sweeping in a lazy curve from Baja California in the Northwest to Chiapas in the Southeast, where the landscape is fully tropical. In this southern coastal region, architecture appears to have undergone a melting process.
Profiles are softer, and the usual definition between the interior and exterior becomes blurred.
No longer needed as room enclosures, except to provide privacy and spatial definition, walls have seemingly unwrapped themselves from their usual rigid positions. They float off beyond the confines of interior space, dissolving gently into the landscaping, leading the eye outward to the ocean view. Angles have been replaced by sensuous curves, whether defining the edges of a stuccoed banquette, or low, molded balustrades which punctuate changes of level. Overhead, the voluminous palapa roof is softly draped over low columns formed from palm trees, giving both a lofty interior space and a low, protective eave. Houses of this kind can be found in most tropical countries.