“CASA JARDIN ESCANDÓN” located at 19 Agricultura Street in the Escandón neighborhood of Mexico City, the housing development is a mixed-use complex with Street level commerce and 14 residential units on the upper levels. The Escandón neighborhood with a recent boom in past years, with that fresh and youthful vibe, where art deco buildings coexist with protected facades by the INBA and new contemporary buildings.

The Project is developed to live towards the interior of the complex through a central courtyard and a rear patio separated from the back boundary. Allowing all residential units to have natural light and cross ventilation. Made up of 14 units of which 4 units are on the ground floor and are apartment type, and 10 townhouses type units located on the upper level made up of 3 levels each.

The volume covered in Galarza Stone has exactly that traditional inspiration that identifies the neighborhood. With a gabled facade facing the Street where the concrete slabs stand out, which in turn on the first level stand out from its alignment to generate balconies to allow a freer relationship with the outside in the social areas of the residential interior. On the other hand, the interior facades towards the central courtyard have a different language, where a game of different windows, openings and gabled roofs are generated, to create a simple, dynamic, fun and ingenious form of the complex.

The central courtyard of the project houses a variety of native plants and species tolerant to sunlight, whose familiarity with the local climate negates the need for much maintenance in the future. This space designed for contemplation and reflection, where form the access to the residential complex begins a gradual transition towards an interior patio that acts as the central disconnection space away from sound and outside movement.

A space that invites you to reflect and contemplate the central garden and its different species of plants and flowers. This interior garden is the most important element of the design proposal, where we look for a magical presence where architecture creates the space for permanence and contemplation.

Carefully considering the distance, orientation and arrangement of the balconies facing the central courtyard, the result is a discreet, private and peaceful interaction between the residents and their shared “secret garden”. And we wanted to capture the same thing on the gardens of the rooftops, where they all have native sun vegetation, where a variety of plants and their foliage were placed to give the residence both privacy and openness between them, allowing open views towards the sky.

The result is a physical manifestation of the idea that architecture can connect with the built environment and the natural environment, adding its benefits to offer a more complete and harmonious life experience.