Category: Residential
Region: Mexico
Year: 1976
Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
FT2 Construction: 3,767 sq ft
FT2 Ground: 8,945 sq ft
Involved Areas: Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture
Collaborators:
LEGORRETA®
Ricardo Legorreta
Noé Castro
Carlos Vargas Sr.
Emilio Guerrero
Gerardo Alonso
Rosa Celorio
Consultants:
Structural Design: Bernardo Calderón
Mechanical Design: BIPSA
Contractor: Jose Antonio Latapí
Photographer:
Julius Shulman
The house was designed for a young couple in Mexico City. In this project, Legorreta kept from thinking too much on the discipline and rather concentrated on human emotions and reaching the correct environment in each part of the house, forgetting about the rules that architects interpret as functional which are sometimes not the ones that satisfy human needs. His concern on our everyday technological imposition has carried him away to believe we should forget about style and simply start with interiors, working from the inside out. Legorretas modern architectural design combines a well-defined Mexican personality of simple and natural materials; breaking through the cold and impersonal feeling of contemporary architecture and brings out the concept of warmth and comfort. The house has a sloping roof of red tile, carried on wood pole beams; whole tree trunks were brought from the “Sierra of Oaxaca” and were barked and shaped. This gives the house a strong character and heroic proportions. The characteristics of the roof are the most important element of the house, so all the spaces were designed subdue to it. The walls are of bricks with plaster finish and are painted the same color in the exterior as well as in the interior. The exterior floor is terracotta tile and in the interiors are wood and carpet. The colors for the furniture, walls and carpet were carefully selected creating a very natural range of colors, giving a very elegant and warm mood to the house. Two basic levels were designed. The upper level has the living room, dining room, kitchen and services. On the lower level are two bedrooms for the children, a play room and the master bedroom with a studio on the upper level. The house lives around several patios and terraces, integrating the interior life with the exterior, giving each room a different and interesting outdoor place to live and look at. Legorreta not only designed the interiors the conventional way, he got very deeply involved in studying all the details, like bathroom accessories, door knobs, furniture, rugs, etc. and selecting the art pieces among different artist, falling to the extreme to ask Sheila Hicks to design a tapestry specially for the house. A big stone was brought from the mountains and shaped into a fountain. This was a gift from Legorreta to the young couple; as these two examples, all the details were chosen and studied.
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