Toronjos is a vacation home designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings. From its inception, the project prioritized a minimal footprint and a fully sustainable design.

The house is a sanctuary that fosters a connection with nature. A series of staggered walls and large openings along the perimeter provide protection and enclosure, while simultaneously allowing the landscape to flow through the architecture. This strategy promotes not only ventilation and natural light, but also a continuous and intimate connection with the outdoors.

More than just a piece of architecture, the house becomes a space for contemplation and serenity, where nature takes center stage. Every corner frames and celebrates the surrounding views, especially those of the lake. This body of water not only enriches the landscape visually, but also serves an environmental function by collecting rainwater and regenerating the site’s ecosystem, reinforcing the project’s sustainable character.

La entrada Toronjos se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Mexican Architecture studio, Oficina de Práctica Arquitectónica has completed Plumbago, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant and cultural venue located in the vibrant Cuauhtémoc neighborhood of Mexico City.

Set in a compact infill plot within one of the capital’s most vibrant culinary districts, Plumbago’s minimalist design uses a carefully curated selection of raw materials and precise construction techniques to bring texture and invite natural light into a simple and welcoming open space.

The small, former derelict site sits in between two high rise buildings just feet away from busy Reforma Avenue, the city’s financial district. The new venue provides a human scale, contrasting with the adjacent corporate feel of the nearby buildings and is composed of two main spaces enclosed by parallel pitched-roof volumes that vary in size and materiality. The larger, transparent structure made from corrugated polycarbonate sheet contains the main dining area and bar, which can accommodate up to 70 guests, while the smaller enclosed shed houses the private kitchen and service areas is made from Pintro sheet.

Plumbago provides an understated yet sophisticated backdrop for the restaurant’s Mediterranean-inspired menu, which prioritises the use of fresh, locally sourced produce.

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This residential building in the San Pedro de los Pinos neighborhood of Mexico City seeks to achieve high urban density with 9 units on a lot that is 10m wide and 45m deep. In order to maximize the entry of light and avoid high and narrow ventilation cubes, 8 units were grouped vertically around 2 shared courtyards (the ninth unit faces the street). This scheme generates a typology of vertical units of 4 levels in which the staircase acts as a dynamic element that filters light into the depth of the dwelling. The vertical typology also allows each house to have a variety of outdoor spaces: a patio on the first floor, French balconies and a terrace on the intermediate levels and a roof garden.

These vertical units are accessed from a wide, high internal corridor, full of vegetation and open to the outdoors, thus avoiding stairs or public elevators in the complex. It is a meeting space in direct contact with the street through a large glazed facade and directly supervised by the doorman. Both the interior and exterior facades of the residential complex consist of a system of vertical brackets between which planters, railings and sunshades are placed to provide privacy and protect the interiors from the sun. These red corrugated sheet metal elements and the abundant vegetation generate kaleidoscopic urban courtyards of multiple levels, dimensions and perspectives.

Text provided by the architects.

La entrada CA22 se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Espina emerges from the synergy of different elements that interact to achieve structural and visual balance. It is a pavilion without a defined program, serving the sole purpose of providing shade and directing views toward the horizon. With a minimal footprint of only 21 sqm of built area, Espina offers a panoramic view of three hundred and sixty degrees, connecting the user with the mountain landscape.

Situated atop a hill on a cattle ranch in Santiago de Querétaro, the project comprises a lightweight roof supported by a structure with a concrete base and a metal frame. This framework serves a dual purpose—on the one hand, delineating the footprint area, and on the other hand, extending in cantilever towards the west façade. The cantilever is supported by gabion masses anchored with tension cables on the opposite side. This contrast between materials and the structural integrity of the design emphasizes the specific function of each element.

La entrada Espina Pavilion se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Casa Monte, or Hillock House, is not a house, really. Nestled somewhere between mountains and the Pacific, amid cacti and low shrubs, it’s more of an experiment in seclusion. A sandy road gives way to a winding path, enveloped by greenery that encroaches upon it on all sides. Above, in the distance, an ochre-hued monolith appears to promise refuge from the elements. Then, it delivers.

La entrada Casa Monte se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The walls of Casa Americana are stacked with bricks, which is also to comply with some local regulations. At the same time, because the brick structure makes the house layered, it will not appear single and without details. Macías Peredo Studio has always made good use of greenery in their designs, allowing the house to contrast in tones and add vitality to the space.

La entrada Casa Americana se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Located in the historic center of the city of Querétaro, the museum seeks to bring art closer to the general population, where an interesting sample of works that illustrate the career of the famous painter Santiago Carbonell is exhibited. In a house dating from 1760, it is the materialization of a project with more than a decade of planning, whose central objective is the cultural development of the city.

The reuse strategy of the existing building starts from recovering the original structure and making minor modifications that would allow the property to be adapted to its new use and optimize the operation of the museum. What used to be rooms are now galleries that house important works of art. The main gallery is created thanks to the steel elements that support the new roof, a light structure that does not affect the integrity of the original structure. A patio, distinctive of the Queretaro houses of the time; connect and illuminate all the galleries. Art, architecture and history interact, combining everything in a timeless atmosphere. Part of the artist’s work and personal collection has been transferred to the museum facilities, where people can have free access to the exhibitions and programs offered by the foundation, opening the possibility of another way of occupying this space.

La entrada Santiago Carbonell Museum se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

La Laguna is a former textile and yarn factory built in the 1920s in Mexico City’s Doctores neighborhood. The design involves the deteriorated factory’s recovery and enhancement into the vibrant complex that currently houses more than 25 motley creative and productive firms (including carpentry and textile workshops, coffee brewers, and ceramics studios, among others).

Although the historic building is not cataloged, the intervention project proposes to preserve the original exterior facades and focus on the interior courtyards that had accumulated a large amount of equipment, roofs, and annexes over time, losing its function as a spatial connector between the different areas of the complex. The reconversion strategy was designed to be implemented gradually, over the course of several years (more than ten years), and with a flexible group of tenants using the complex simultaneously.

La entrada La Laguna se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

In La Punta Zicatela, a spot on Mexico’s Pacific coast with golden sunsets where the sea, the sand, and the cliffs form a unique panorama, Casa To nestles in a discreet oasis of unusual architecture where you can immerse yourself in a state of total contemplation.
With just nine suites, the hotel defines itself as a manifesto of hospitality for introspection, sited opposite the Zicatela Ecological Community, a key destination for contemporary nomads from every latitude, who seek to find themselves among wide beaches ideal for surfing and watersports, walking, meditating, and even helping to release turtles in the local sanctuaries.

The project, by the renowned architect Ludwig Godefroy, was developed under the watchword of simplicity and conceptual elegance, bringing together tradition and the avant-garde in a unique structure embraced by a peaceful natural setting. The name, Casa TO, comes from the idea of serene contemplation of an enclosed space, like the reinterpretation of a Oaxacan temple, generating a radical sensory experience upon entering.

The structure evokes the reticulated pattern of two historical hydraulic works of timeless beauty: the Basilica Cistern or Yerebatan Sarayi of Istanbul, dating from the 6th century AD, and the Hornsey Wood Reservoir in Finsbury Park, London, built in the 19th century.
The interplay of privacy and exposure is evident. The interior views create an oasis enclosed by the sky, the weight of the walls and the vegetation of climbing plants and fruit trees including bananas and passion fruit. In this area, measuring 600 square meters, Godefroy interweaves aesthetics and functionality, emphasizing the honesty of the textures of the raw materials, such as concrete, steel, clay, and wood.

La entrada Casa TO se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

This off-the-grid retreat located in the mountains south of Valle Bravo, approximately two hours west of Mexico City, is strategically sited to provide views towards the 16,500-foot-high Volcan Toluca Mountain. Situated in a nature reserve, a key objective was to create a structure that could operate off the grid through a solar PV array and an on-site water treatment and storage system, working in tandem with the local climate where summers are wet and rainy, and winters extremely dry.

La entrada Rain Harvest Home se publicó primero en Global Spaces.