Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

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Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Firm

Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2022

SIZE

3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Las Rocas is a complex of four houses located in the northern part of the Peña de Valle de Bravo, a very rocky cliff area with unique vegetation.

The land has an area of 6,400 m2 and borders a protected natural reserve, which led us to understand the complex as an extension of it and to think of the project from an environmental, respectful and regenerative point of view.

The study and understanding of the site was slow and precise in order to find the possible spaces where the houses could be built, seeking the minimum impact on the rocks, vegetation and existing runoff.

Access to the complex is through a small cobblestone street that ends in a distribution plaza where the services are located: parking lots, warehouses and main equipment, such as cisterns, machine rooms and treatment plants. From this space, users must leave their vehicles and walk along sidewalks, stairs and small squares, which achieves an immediate disconnection from the urbanized context.

The development of the project started with the study of the program: we thought of a dynamic system that would allow us to generate different configurations with which to obtain the right compositions for each location. The result is four houses composed of the same modules and components, but each with a completely different arrangement in response to its specific characteristics: a set of volumes that has the freedom to move in six directions (forward, backward, up, down, left, right) to respond to exact situations, a simple and dynamic system that allows the connection of the architectural object with nature. These volumes do not touch each other: their separation creates voids, views, light inlets and ventilations, allowing proper integration into the site. Therefore, in Las Rocas a bathroom can be a stone, a tree can be part of the roof, or the land itself can serve as a walkway or staircase: nature is the guiding axis that sets the design guidelines.

As in many of our projects, the modules were designed separately in the studio and were then traced on site to find their best location. Once they were placed in the context, we began to furnish them, we imagined the placement of doors and windows and then connected them to the corridor, a linear axis that serves as the horizontal and vertical circulation element and that adopts dimensions, measures and levels according to the position of each of the volumes that make up the program. In this way, the paths weave the architecture with its context, so that what is built adapts to the site and not the other way around.

The contrast between the closed volumes and the openness of the corridors seeks to give different sensations in the way of inhabiting these spaces: the containment of the sleeping area and the open circulation through the project, in direct relation to the vegetation and rocks of the site. The corridor, in addition to being a connector, captures the light from the south and the heat of the site, which modulates the temperature of the houses thanks to the shadows generated by the rock and the orientation of the houses towards the north.

The living room and dining room have a corner window created by a 5 x 10 m cantilever that opens up the space and connects the interior with the exterior in a direct way. This gesture eliminates the duplicity of program common in the country houses of Valle de Bravo, preventing these rooms from falling into disuse and turning them into main programmatic elements.

The kitchen is located in the same space as the living and dining room and can sometimes be connected with a sliding wall. The terraces, on the other hand, were the last to be designed: they were drawn on site to adapt their measurements to the possibilities of the context, seeking to integrate the landscape into the project and thus blur the boundaries between the built and the place.

The finish of Las Rocas is a light gray stucco that matches the general tone of the neighboring rocks. Only two other materials complement the project: a bush-hammered stone floor and glass, which, always placed on the exterior wall, matches the smooth texture of the walls and contrasts drastically with the context, reflecting the surroundings and blending the house into the context. This chromatic allowed us to create a discreet and simple architecture, where the composition of massive volumes will achieve a sense of lightness, and the vegetation and nature will be preserved as the main element. The houses are characterized by their simplicity, the built space is silent to let the context always appear in the foreground.

Ana Paula de Alba's interior design in each of the houses is unique and responds to the particular needs of the families, so that each space has an unrepeatable character. Thus, each home has its own essence, as a result of the synergy between the user, the architecture and the context.

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Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Other Projects by Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba

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Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

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Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Other Projects by Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba

Rubra

Cárpatos

Las Rocas

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team