7XA Arquitectura
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
The client approached us to helped him to choose a land for his new house. After seeing several land options we decided by one that reunited three characteristics: Downgrade, View to the “Cerro de la Silla” and a federal green area in the back part that framed better that view. The direction also was very favorable for the requirements of the project.
We start from a basic premise: the movement. The house turns around a central axis, where forms and the program looks for a spiral to align itself throughout the same one. The location of the spaces defined according to the views that the land allows to the city and the volumetric configuration emphasizes this idea. The house interprets the formal and chromatic idea of Sebastiáns sculpture that is the landmark of access to the neighborhood.
To enter, you cross a water mirror where a glass volume floating over the lobby. From this one we get low by a ramp more than a half level to arrive at the social area, that surrounds a central space fed by zenithal light, the composition of the house turns on this. The back Garden is formed by terraces of steel and wood that allow an open social zone without obstacles to the views of the city. Stairs that start from the lobby also take in spiral to the intimate area where the study and the main bedroom take advantage of the view to the city and at the end of route is the guest bedroom.
There are no windows in the traditional sense of the word, the glass is treated as independent volumes or as transparent extensions of the game of walls that are interlaced in the central space. Each space was thought for a specific aim of contemplation of the landscape where the “Cerro de la Silla” with the city on their feet is the drop curtain for the most important spaces.
Constructive Process
The complex geometry of the house made us generate an outline system using elevated strings with the same height between each floor to identify sloped walls. We confronted some complications in the excavation of the area, because one part of it was compacted soil and didn’t reflect in the soil mechanics. This was an advantage to place a very big warehouse, that the client was going to demand because it wasn’t contemplated in the project.
The geometry of the concrete wall was demanding a tridimensional outline in which each point didn’t match. We needed to seep floor by floor to avoid mistakes in big areas. We wanted a perfect outline, but with the texture of the wood that was used in the centering.
The slabs were more complex because each corner has a different level, and during the constructive process we saw the possibilities of doing more folds that let us have a better entry of light to the central space. The central ceiling starts in the kitchen, and while it cross the stairs it generate complex folds that born in the encounter of walls and slabs of the house.
The floors are made of cement polished with sparkles of white and gray gravel. The joints were drew according to the walls and slabs outlines of the house so everything is geometrically congruent. The windows are made of satin natural aluminium with green tintex glass.
The people
Project: Ms-Borbon House
Author: 7XA Arquitectura
Angel López, Carlos Ortiz
Design Team: Manuel Frías, Elda Pasquel, Mayela Villa, Anabel Crespo, Jose Borani, Abraham Valdez, Alejandro Nerio
Location: Nuevo León, México
Structure: Ing. Hugo Arellano
Construction: 7XA Arquitectura
Area: 390 sq mt
Date: 2005-2007
Photography: Vicente San Martín
Francisco Lubbe
via:Aechtracker
