OMA Designs A Sculptural Mushroom-Growing Pavilion For Casa Wabi

Emerging from the cacti and scrubby green brush of Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan coast, a spaceshiplike form touches down lightly on the land. The windowless, concrete structure is the latest addition to Fundación Casa Wabi, the community art organization founded by Mexican sculptor-painter Bosco Sodi with campuses in Mexico City and Tokyo. Over the years, Sodi has been slowly adding to the Oaxaca headquarters, working with starchitects including Alberto Kalach, Kengo Kuma, and Álvaro Siza to erect buildings across the 62-acre site.

Each Casa Wabi edifice is hyper-focused on a single function, conceived to bring the nonprofit’s community-driven mission to life. The newest, the Mushroom Pavilion by OMA, is a chamber for growing the fungi and far from a folly.“ It’s a little counterintuitive to make a bunkerlike structure in such beautiful scenery, but it’s true to the functionality of growing mushrooms,” OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu says. “It’s an isolated, meditative experience inside.”

The form, resembling a mushroom cap, is ideal for cultivating the produce, a burgeoning food commodity in Oaxaca. Two doors on either side and operable vents around the lower perimeter allow for controlled ventilation, and a water fountain in the middle of the 2,150-square-foot interior creates the needed humidity for mushrooms to thrive. A circular oculus yields a dramatic play of light over the course of the day, while an open and elevated square viewing portal frames the landscape. Amphitheater-style benching provides a plinth for clay mushroom pots and seating for gatherings and classes.A place for both cultivating and observing, the pavilion is functional sculpture on a community scale.