El Caballo
Sector
Public
Location
Tempe, Arizona
Year
2025
Design Team
Thiago Constantino Costa
Project Type
Bachelor Project
A. Located on the shore of Tempe Town Lake in Arizona, this project proposes a wellness and aquatic center that responds to the community’s need for spaces of health, leisure, and retreat. Many residents seek environments that combine activity, relaxation, and contact with nature. Every step of the design process was planned so that visitors could move freely, choose their own rhythm, and feel balanced and inspired.
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The stepped form, inspired by Muybridge’s Horse in Motion, rises gradually as each level recedes toward the lake. Circulation is open and flexible, allowing people to explore pools, baths, gardens, and terraces at their own pace. The terraces, which are also spaces for gathering and rest, connect the levels and mediate between inside and outside.
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B. Materials were chosen for their climate performance, durability, and atmosphere. Concrete provides stability, glass opens views, and wood brings warmth and protection. Adjustable wooden louvers filter sunlight, improve ventilation, and shade interiors, while terraces act as thresholds that frame the water and landscape.
C. The design favors simple and effective strategies adapted to the Arizona climate, such as natural ventilation, shaded paths, and the use of water as a cooling element. Construction relies on accessible materials and techniques, making the center feasible while still ambitious in scale. In other words, this project offers a civic destination that enriches daily life through architecture.
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The wellness center is planned to offer much more than simple facilities. It creates a comfortable and sustainable environment while reinforcing Tempe Town Lake as a place where nature, leisure, and culture converge. The project takes shape in five essential steps: embracing the site, tracing circulation, raising stepped terraces, adding louvers and gardens, and finally completing the whole in harmony between movement, water, and landscape.
