Agustín Pizá has completed a ‘golf lounge’ practice area in the grounds of a private client’s home in Mexico City, Mexico.

“I think my client had a regular putting and chipping green in mind, but I don’t do regular things,” said Pizá.

The golf course architect created what he calls a ‘golf lounge’, a large free-form putting green with heavily contoured surrounds and four sand hazards. The design includes a fire pit within a large revetted bunker.

“The central bunker is key to the entire composition,” said Pizá. “During the day you can practice all types of shots from 70 yards in. Flops, bump and runs, lag putts. Anything you want to create, it’s there. It is a multi-purpose area – during the day the family can enjoy either practicing golf or playing in the sandbox. In the evenings, you turn on the music, turn on the lights, turn on the fire pit and relax. You can still putt around it, have a putting contest, whatever you like.”

Ecobunker was selected for the bunker walls. “I knew I needed the central sandpit to be revetted,” said Pizá. “I did my research and with the evidence available to me Ecobunker is the most proven system in the world for constructing revetted bunkers, especially in climates like Mexico City’s. I spoke to Richard Allen, the inventor of synthetic revetting, who I had met several times at EIGCA functions and said, ‘send me your best installer’. He sent me Llewelyn Matthews who did a fantastic job.”

Video: ‘The Pit’ from animation experts Harris Kalinka shows Pizá’s vision for the completed design

Pizá says that this project was different to most architectural jobs because it was in a domestic environment. “The safe rule in architecture is that form follows function, but in this case, I wanted the function to follow the form,” he said. “This meant extra detail to creative and engineering work. I wanted the client and his family to fall in love with it just by seeing it through the windows of their home, whether or not they were golfers. So, I conceived it as a kind of ‘grass sculpture’ that would be both beautiful to look at and functional. If it is just a golf facility, it is a waste of space to anyone who doesn’t play golf. This way, it is something for the entire family to enjoy.”