Infonavit Mejorando La Unidad, El Chopo

For Infonavit’s “Improving Housing Complexes” program we studied a housing complex in the El Chopo district. This project is based on the idea of respecting and conserving existing elements that have naturally found an adequate functional state, producing a respectful intervention in the housing complex and for the community as a whole.

The project is defined by specific but continuous interventions; the plazas and the connections between them are the spaces that have the greatest potential for sporting, social, and recreational activities that strengthen the bonds between local residents.

To this end, an open community pavilion was designed to offer a variety of activities for local inhabitants; the central park area was redesigned to reactivate the children’s playground and at the same time provide a meeting place for those looking after them. In front of the children’s park, a small contemplative space with benches and lights was created in the planted area. The project is complemented by a concrete skate park.

 

San Juan Xalpa, Mexico City, 2015

2,240 sqm

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