Casa once

Location: Puebla, Mexico

Architect: Carla Osorio Jimenez, Mario Alberto Avila Lopez, Juan Pablo Fernandez Cueto

Client: private

Material: concrete & wood

Completion date: 2018

Built area: 249m²

Architecture Firm: Espacio 18 Arquitectura

Photographer: Lorena Darquea

Story:

Text provided by the architect:

Casa Once was designed like a tailor-made suit for a young couple who were looking for a refuge that would take them away from the outer chaos and create a space of tranquility to enhance their human development.

The house is located in a single-family complex in the city of Puebla, where the real estate sector has grown dramatically and imposes projects that do not always meet the current and future needs of people. The price of land has increased as a result of this "boom" so that each time the properties are smaller and more exclusive, from there we set out solutions to respond and generate a good project contemplating the conditions of the 150m2 land property and the internal regulations of the community.

The scheme starts with exercises of subtractions from the architectural program, finally creating an "I", this scheme allows a correct and thought natural lighting at different times of the year, in addition, to cross ventilation, which can be controlled by the user. The perforations in the project result in patios that enables all the areas to have a spatial fluidity, offering green views from any point of the house and introducing the surprise factor. Also, the limits of adjacency in the back of the property are respected.

The project is developed in 3 levels. On the ground floor, the social areas are distributed, opening onto the courtyards, where the program is extended and joined by means of glass screens. On the first level are the bedrooms, with views of the sky and an "Acacia" tree, which gives strength to the patio and that in spring will change to a purple color, becoming a major landmark inside the house. Finally, on the second level is the entertainment area, services, and the roof garden with a panoramic view of the volcanoes.

The facade responds to the program and comes from the idea of living the house inside the walls, avoiding openings to the street and unnecessary elements, the vaulting allows a light bounce back to the studio, controlling visuals and lighting during the day. We generated, defined, and interpreted the materiality through the internal construction regulations, exposing natural wood and black pigmented stuccos. Inside, the engineering floor, furniture, carpentry, and wooden beams provide warmth, smells, sounds, and textures in all spaces. In the bathrooms, the tiles of Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo allow us to introduce an artistic side and to remember another city that has given us a lot as architects.

Casa Once gathers different qualities that allow an exercise of rational and objective architecture, that responds to a user, a society, and a place.