Rebollar

This house was built on the roof of a mid-twentieth century construction. The new construction uses this situation to its advantage, by supporting its structure on the original, thus converting it into a foundation. As a result, in some cases, the walls below become pillars above, removing the partitions and permitting ample, diaphanous rooms thanks to the large concrete slab covering the space.

The new house preserves the same distribution governed by the corridor, with the rooms ranged along one side. The interior wall accompanying this passage becomes a calibrated division, and along its entire length a bespoke piece of furniture adapts to the requirements of each space.

Running parallel to this interior corridor, on the other side of the rooms, an exterior walkway creates a route along the length of the house via a terrace open to the garden, while the slender window frames blur the relationship between inside and outside spaces. This large, continuous window converts the interior into part of the surrounding urban landscape.

 

San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico City, 2010

180 sqm

Photographs: Ignacio Urquiza / ESTUDIO URQUIZA Taller de fotografía

Casa Las Tinajas

This project is developed around a central garden filled with pre-existing plants. Surrounding this green space, six independent volumes—all with a locally made palapa roof—adopt the proportions and characteristics of the program they accommodate. Five of these volumes are private and similar; with the aim of erasing the limits that naturally appear with the presence of a building, and seeking to restore the original sensation and experience to the site, their façades are identical and open both onto the interior of the garden and to the exterior of the property, aiming to give the same importance to the sea to the south as to the sierra to the north. The sixth volume is completely different from the others: it consists of a circular palapa, 12 meters in diameter, that houses all the public uses of the program in its interior and that, intersected with a geometrical volume like those described above, completes the whole.

 

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, 2009

1,580 sqm

Photographs: Ignacio Urquiza / ESTUDIO URQUIZA Taller de fotografía

Casa Macaria

Located on the Oaxaca coast, this project explores the vernacular and traditional elements of Mexican Pacific architecture and observes the ways in which the elements interact with the habitable space through an indefinite sequence of open areas. The project’s spaces and functional aspects blend into the surrounding landscape thanks to the use of artisanal construction methods such as palapas.

The project consists of a series of eight palapas located on the plot, responding to the orientation and vegetation of the existing wetland. Their varying dimensions in plan and section, as well as their layout, depart from the traditional relationship between interior and exterior spaces, allowing the vegetation and landscape to be part of a symbiotic relationship.

 

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, 2008

1,500 sqm

Photographs: Ignacio Urquiza / ESTUDIO URQUIZA Taller de Fotografía