Mushroom Pavilion
2025
“The function of the Mushroom Pavilion, as its name suggests, is to cultivate fungi, but also the exchange between food and the local communities of Puerto Escondido by teaching them about the growth process. It will also be integrated into the kitchen of the foundation and of Hotel Escondido. To convey this simple yet important purpose, we conceived a pavilion as a basic, oval form. Like an incubating egg, the self-supporting ellipsoid is derived from an optimized interior organization for growing mushrooms.
Within, the domed interior is divided into three chambers – fruiting room, incubation room, and storage – encircling a gathering space at the heart of the pavilion. The lower half of the bowl is stepped, like an amphitheater in the round, to make shelves for handmade terra cotta mushroom pots crafted by local artisans. The stepping and elliptical form create a panopticon viewing experience, rendering the mushroom growing process visible in its entirety.
An oculus opens up the central space to the sky and fills the cave-like interior with light, while additional openings around the lower perimeter enable natural ventilation. A platform and portal at the top of the steps offer views above and beyond the natural brush to the ocean. The three-dimensional volume curves inward at its base to minimize the pavilion’s contact on the ground, preserving the natural landscape as much as possible and allowing the native guayacan to thrive. Its concrete shell is burlap stamped on the outside to retain the site’s high iron content water. Conceding to the natural elements, the pavilion will rust and change in appearance over time.”
-OMA
Within, the domed interior is divided into three chambers – fruiting room, incubation room, and storage – encircling a gathering space at the heart of the pavilion. The lower half of the bowl is stepped, like an amphitheater in the round, to make shelves for handmade terra cotta mushroom pots crafted by local artisans. The stepping and elliptical form create a panopticon viewing experience, rendering the mushroom growing process visible in its entirety.
An oculus opens up the central space to the sky and fills the cave-like interior with light, while additional openings around the lower perimeter enable natural ventilation. A platform and portal at the top of the steps offer views above and beyond the natural brush to the ocean. The three-dimensional volume curves inward at its base to minimize the pavilion’s contact on the ground, preserving the natural landscape as much as possible and allowing the native guayacan to thrive. Its concrete shell is burlap stamped on the outside to retain the site’s high iron content water. Conceding to the natural elements, the pavilion will rust and change in appearance over time.”
-OMA
