Rancho El Salto

A rectangular floor plan of 11 x 65 meters was subdivided into 16 equal-sized modules to accommodate the program, employing a single, standardized construction system. Linking these modules produces the public program and dividing them forms the adjacent service spaces. A perimeter circulation allows internal and external access to each of the program’s spaces. The (almost completely blind) northern façade is designed in response to the intense climate and constant northerly winds, while the south façade is an arcade offering views over the coffee plantations and the San Pablo Coapan valley, and permitting adequate insolation of the volume. A series of interior patios provide natural lighting and ventilation for the different spaces.

The project uses a minimum palette of local materials (polished stucco, clay floor and roof tiles, timber and ironwork), which together with its shape respond directly to the surroundings and the extreme local climate.

 

Naolinco, Veracruz, 2015

720 sqm

Photographs: Ignacio Urquiza

Casa Peñas

Casa Peñas, located in the Pedregal district to the south of Mexico City, has been developed behind a large volcanic stone wall that encloses a private garden. The project’s volumes are set back from these walls, generating voids, endpoints, and light wells. The various spaces are turned towards this garden generating a dynamic relationship between the interior and exterior, taking advantage of the inward-facing views of the project.

The main street entrance consists of two white-concrete volumes and a natural steel plane. The short side, which creates the façade on the street, is almost completely blind, whereas inside the long side of the first floor volume is entirely glazed, connecting every room with these open spaces.

The program is arranged longitudinally in a careful modulation over two levels, with only the central staircase breaking the scheme to generate a large, double-height space

 

Pedregal, Mexico City, 2015

610 sqm

Photographs: Onnis Luque

Insurgentes 670

This low-budget intervention initially required a study of the void resulting from the positioning of the minimal rooms and built elements. A series of independent volumes were the only components designed within this enclosure; the spaces that needed to be fully closed were defined, and the arrangement of each of these volumes generated new, more open, and flexible workspaces. The position and correspondence of these minimal built elements produced a new space suited to the layout of the program and the correct operation of a new floor of offices.

 

Colonia del Valle, Mexico City, 2014

449 sqm

Photographs: Ignacio Urquiza