Text by Ana Guerrerosantos
Firmamento House has plenty of unusual things, the land where it is for instance. It was bought in the 70’s and its owner decided to build until now. It is not common to build land and wait for almost forty years to build.
Second, it is also unusual for an elderly couple to build a new house with new furniture too. And third, it is also not often to ask for a single floor house, but due to their age, they did so.
It is quite rare too to leave a considerable piece of land in the front for a garden that goes out to the street, adding up to the public space, instead of making it private. It happens this way in this project because it is an elder couple who doesn’t need a backyard for playing at all. And while there is a golf course on the back, green is a surplus and this invites the generosity of giving the front yard to the street making the project absolutely different.
As for all the rest, these special conditions created the general program of the house, making the spaces where this couple spends the day, face the golf course. Therefore kitchen, living, dining room, studio, master bedroom and terraces look to the fairway and only two bedrooms –used by the grandchildren when they spend the night over- don’t.
The garage is on a side entrance and this is why the cars don’t make part of the façade, leaving part of this area for a front patio that recalls the long time Guadalajara tradition of the “zaguan”. It is a transitional area for outside and inside, leading to the lobby of the house where a piece of Adrian Guerrero, plastic artist, is. The piece has a series of perforations that let the Sun and moonlight go by, recreating the firmament as it was the day the owner of the house was born. This is an homage to him, and it is where the name of the house was taken.
Firmamento House is the sum of all these unusual things, which give as a result a terribly exiting project.
Datasheet
Location:
Santa Anita Golf Club
Tlajomulco, Jalisco, Mexico
Date:
Project: 2011
Completion date: 2013
Authors:
Agraz Arquitectos
Ricardo Agraz
Manager project:
Gabriela Villarreal
Collaborators:
Miguel Sánchez
Juan Antonio Jaime
Humberto Dueñas
Blanca Moreno
Marc Steven Fernández
Javier H. Aguirre
Brenda Barrón
Javier Gutiérrez
Erick Martínez
Gabriel Gómez
Raúl Estrada
Oscar Aguirre
Fernanda Palma
Jessica Magaña
Construction:
Constructora DIO
José Luis Navarro López
Nicolás Orozco Díaz
Photography:
Mito Covarrubias
Renders:
RM3 Studio
Site area: 977.34 m2
Construction area: 495.88 m2
View Original