Due to life casualties, we had the opportunity to present to a young couple with a not-so-clear vision of what they wanted, but convinced of what they didn’t; the proposal that months later would start to materialize with the first architectural drawings of this residence of 450m2 of construction, in a regular shaped lot, surrounding the 900m2 surface, sown into a gated community, in a calmed residential zone in the most beautiful and safe southeast Mexican area.
The house is proposed in one level, and achieves through a basic zonification and practically a “school” level outline, to settle comfortably in the lot, linking public spaces with the private ones through a “humid wooded patio”, home of the husband’s treasured carp fish.
The out of phase volumes pretend to generate visuals and to privatize each zone from one another at the same time, the choice of a spatial structures through walls that point from north to south, in a way that emphasizes the house character and it’s narrow relationship between the inside and outside condition, to the point where it loses the notion between one place and another.
To get off a bit from the traditional, repetitive and almost recipe-like continuous space, was a particular assignment and a personal challenge. The social areas can be divided and that doesn’t implies an absence of fluidity. Each space has an identity of its own, and simultaneously recognises its role within a whole.
The material selection goes out of the conventional choices. The floors were made in concrete, and to give it a twist, shattered amber glass was incorporated to the mix and then polished, generating a series of interesting and exciting sparkles.
The walls were thought in local concrete coating “Chukum” which is made from local trees resin that forms a paste that is applied to the existing wall, which mixed with other resins and applied in different conditions and timing, generates interesting colors and contrasts.
If the directionality was pointed to the patio, but when standing in it they could see the private areas, ¿How to lose them? The decision was to melt the floors with the walls , and suddenly the garden which was horizontal, became vertical, the private walls got covered with a mix of concrete and red soil, and then they just waited for the vines to do their part of the deal: Climb. In an instant, the exterior “devoured” the private zone of the house and it just disappeared.
The glass, steel and wood were the complementary elements to accomplish the atmosphere of warm modernity. The wood election was local, “Tzalam” is a hard wood from the region used in doors, wall paneling, details and accentuations.
The young couple weren’t just clients to the firm, but good friends, contributing to the designing process and adding the freshness of new ideas for the elaboration of the details that conferred the identity of the house, giving it the sense of belonging with a personal stamp.
The “madness” was suddenly a matter of debate, and ended up in important pragmatic requirements with the need of being attended and sometimes questioned the details that were solved automatically in the beginning. The “cherry on top” can be observed in the English Patio, conceived underneath the master bedroom’s area, a space where you get to through vegetal steps in a way of a carpet from the garden which unfolds down.
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