普拉塔谷住宅丨墨西哥丨RAG arquitectos

Architects:RAG arquitectos

Area:505m²

Year:2022

Photographs:Paco Álvarez

Lead Architect :Guillermo Durán Suárez

Design Team:Ana Lorena Félix, José Bermeo, Ricardo Urbina

Structural Consultant:Fabián Hernández

Sculptures:Patricia Zambrano

Model :Marifer Mohamed

Interior Styling:Catalina Cavazos

City:San Antonio de las Alazanas

Country:Mexico

Text description provided by the architects. The project came from dialogue and conversation with our clients in search of a spiritual and refuge space, a broader concept of home. The forms, spaces, and atmospheres respond to concepts of relaxation, peace, silence, meditation, and tranquility.

The project is divided into six separate volumes with two main objectives, the first with the intention of inhabiting nature and using it as a privacy filter between them. The separations increase depending on the program they contain, the library of the living room, and the kitchen even more until the bedrooms are completely separated.

The displacement of the volumes creates squares, courtyards, and transition spaces, rest or coexistence, traditional of pre-Hispanic culture. The second objective was to use the topography and taking into account the orientation, to provide specific views for the use of each space and for each nucleus to have the opportunity to generate views from more than two sides. At the same time, these separations were the result of preserving existing vegetation.

The core of the house is composed of three volumes, close to each other, containing the kitchen, the living room, and the library with two new levels due to its proximity to the river and the topography, generating a flexible bar/bedroom area underneath it, and on top of it, a lookout that, due to the slope, manages to surpass the treetops to enjoy the landscape. The rooms are separated from this central nucleus, it is through nature and pathways that one reaches them. This allows for the creation of relaxed and secluded atmospheres, taking care of their privacy and always generating curiosity, each room has a bathroom and terrace.

The materiality connects with the site, with the use of raw and natural materials, such as compacted earth (taken from the immediate site) and wood. The lighting, natural and artificial, works in a zenithal way, creating atmospheres of presence and monumentality. Traveling through the ensemble creates transitions of light and shadow in which light and reflections allow the inhabitant to relate to the surroundings and situate themselves in the constructed space.

The displacement and orientation of the different volumes allow the project to be naturally ventilated, promoting cross ventilation, and in winter the fireplace allows the areas to remain warm. This reduces electricity consumption and allows it to function through solar panels and batteries.

By using these elements and gestures, such as division, hiding, discovering, moments of natural light, raw material from the site, views with direct and indirect sunlight, etc... All these elements allowed us to create a space for contemplation, introspection, rest, curiosity, the result is a type of temple, something that we believe should be synonymous with home.

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