Juan Carlos Baumgartner from architecture firm SPACE has designed the ALD House, a weekend retreat located in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

Project description

This weekend retreat is projected on a land of little over 1,000 square meters and it is articulated in two main volumes: a prism into which another rectangular wooden prism is embedded.
Since the very beginning, the purpose of this project was clear: to create a house in which a balance between modernity and coziness was struck. Therefore, we chose to use few materials in order to achieve a quick reading of the volumes.
The first prism consists of a black metal structure that ends on an exposed concrete staple. The two fronts of this volume are made of glass, which helps create a transparency to the interior area and gives a feeling of permanently being in touch with nature.
The second volume is a cantilevered wooden cube, under which a terrace is generated. Requirements for the design of this project included a swimming pool, and we fulfilled them by creating one and covering it with black venetian glass tiles. In this way, the swimming pool was turned into a water mirror that reflects the house.
For this project, we decided to integrate art into architecture so that the selected works became a part of the design instead of functioning as mere decorative items. With this principle in mind, we commissioned a hyper-realistic 2 x 6 m painting of a Porsche 78; which was placed in a double-height space. In addition to the painting, Juan Carlos Baumgartner designed a mural that works both as the visual end of the swimming pool and as the vestibule of the house entrance.
The house has four bedrooms, a double-height living room and an open plan kitchen that is integrated into the space. In the living area, a modern cast glass sphere chandelier hangs from the ceiling. By using few but carefully selected materials, we created delightful areas that met our clients’ expectations
As in all the projects of SPACE, we followed sustainable design guidelines when designing Casa ALD. We used recycled content materials low in VOC levels and wood from certified forests. Furthermore, the lighting is almost entirely LED-based.

fonte:
http://www.contemporist.com/2014/05/08/ald-house-by-space/

P+0 Architecture have designed the Narigua House in El Jonuco, Mexico.

Project description

We find Narigua House in “El Jonuco” a beautiful place where we enjoy from 360º of spectacular views. This mountain-enclosed neighborhood reminds us of numerous mexican towns where tall mountains limit the valley where its inhabitants settle. Here, its residents live alongside with the typical vegetation and wildlife found in northern México.
The site is densely populated by local trees that pose a serious design challenge: A house that enjoys the view of the mountains while respecting the existing ecosystem. Because of the horizontal growt of the cedar trees that block the view, a “forest of columns” is not an option. The only possible solution is to lift the house and make it fly above the tree tops. A mild slope road reaches the ground floor, 10m above the road, where all the esencial spaces are located. To preserve the existing greenery the floorplan is divided into zones that get around a group of old cedar trees. Because each level responds to different conditions each plan, in itself simple, is different to the others.
The building is divided in three different volumes. The first one contains the garage and storage spaces. The entrance hall, master bedroom and the staircase to the lower level are located in the second volume while the third volume contains the kitchen, service and social areas.
Outdoor life ocurrs on the west side of the house in a group of terraces that overlook the focal point of the residence: two spectacular mountains that almost touch.
The lower level serves as a plinth for the groundfloor and contains a number of “recyclable” chambers with furniture that allows them to transform into the guest bedrooms.
This floor also contains two half-buried technical rooms that free the rooftop to enjoy an enormous belvedere surrounded completely by the landscape.
Contrary to its massive exterior image, inside the house the transparency of the glass makes the exterior views part of everyday life. Windows dialogue with thick walls, flat roofs and the timber beams we find in tradicional mexican architecture.
The material palette gives the project a rustic, timeless appereance that serves as background for various objects. Antiques live alogside with contemporary furniture while the paralell world of paintings, masks and sculptures claim our attention. The house’s treasures allure our eyes to stay inside before scaping to the natural scenario on the other side of the glass.
The different elements of the program, placed in a juxtaposition of volumes define the complex image that emerges from a simple distribution.
The colored walls and enormous floor to ceiling windows reflect the landscape and make the house dissapear. When seen from a distance it is easy to mistake Narigua for a geological accident.
The roads and walls are paved with the stones of the land and the colors of its dirt, its form contrasts with the mountains and trees. Narigua house is a stone work humbly placed in an impressive landscape.

fonte:
http://www.contemporist.com/2014/04/29/narigua-house-by-p0-architecture/cn_290414_42/

Marcio Kogan projeta Casa P em Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Project description

The P house is a puzzle game. Rotating three volumes around one nucleus generated not only a particular spatial dynamic, but also different visual relations between empty and full, between the private and semiprivate areas and the view of the city.
The site is located on the other side of the Pinheiros River, one of the main rivers that define and cut into the city of São Paulo, in an essentially residential neighborhood, Morumbi. From there it is possible to see the entire valley filled with gardened houses, the river and, on the other margin, another Hill, the corporate area of the city drawing the metropolitan skyline with its typical skyscrapers.
The program boasts three floors: a garden, a terrace with fireplace and barbecue, home theater, dining and living rooms, washroom, kitchen, four bedrooms, office and family room. In the basement: a garage, laundry room, utility rooms and a gym. The nucleus of the circulation is made of a continuous staircase joined in a structural wall. This block, which organizes the structure and distributes the fluxes, is the pivot around which the boxes revolve.
The volumes are developed to create constant and distinct relations between the inner and outer spaces. The bedrooms on the second floor look out to the pool and take advantage of the deck above the roof of the living and dining rooms. The box comprising the bedrooms projects outwards over both sides of the first box. From one side, the cantilever determines the main entrance of the house and, on the other, it shades the terrace.
The spiral movement continues with the third box, supported by the second and projecting outwards over the first. It shades the window of the master bedroom and part of the deck while, simultaneously, creates new visual relations with the other bedrooms and the terrace.
All of the boxes are bare concrete frames. The living room and the bedrooms have their sides closed by freijó wooden folding panels which filter the light and allow for permanent crossed ventilation. The family room, on the top floor is enclosed by glass, to preserve the view.
The result strengthens interactions, the crossing of eye views and vectors through the garden: eyes that see the view and the treetops around the pool, eyes that are turned back to the house itself, its volumetry and, above all else, to its own life.

fonte:
http://www.contemporist.com/2014/04/15/casa-p-by-studio-mk27/