by Francis E.L. Watson
Twenty-five years ago I purchased an ocean cliffside lot in a sleepy little pacific coast Mexican fishing village. The Idea was to slooooowly build the way the village locals do – as you can afford it! A couple of years went by and I married a tropical woman. We decided to design and build a little tiny house on it. The first decade or so was spent slowly building a series of retaining rockwall terraces on the very steep hillside.
We began construction of The Bird House in 2000, and, finished the first incarnation 7 years later. It is built 70 meters above the ocean beach, straight up! In the photo the place looks huge, but in reality the main structure is only 5m x 6m and a 7.5m inside roof peak. Concrete, brick, stone and palma royal thatched roof construction. It is a ‘breathing’ house using two towers that act like morning and evening wind chimneys. No doors in the passageways, no glass or screen in the windows, only heat absorbing archways that bring in the outside without the tropical heat.
Off the electrical grid with multiple grey water fields that irraigate fruit orchards. Typhoon/storm bunker built into sw middle corner below outside living room. The place is set up for our annual journey south in our vintage motorhome, The Big Fish’. And that’s another story!