House 3 / at103

Architects: at103 / Julio Amezcua + Francisco Pardo
Location: Acapulco, Mexico
Project Team: Jorge Vazquez, Aida Hurtado
Constructed Area: 600 sqm
Project year: 2006
Construction year: 2007
Photographs: Frida Escobedo, Adolfo Pardo

The Project consists on a restoration and addition of an existing house in the old part of the city of Acapulco, México. Acapulco in the 50’s and 60’s was a Hollywood Town, full of glamour and money, where all the rich and famous used to hang out from John Wayne to John F Kennedy and Maria Felix, where good taste and modern architecture, mixed with the beautiful landscape of the bay and cliffs, this condition has changed with the years, the city got old, needs urgent new infrastructure and hast lost some of this classic scent for most part of the city, this except for the old town, that still -in a decay way- the great modern living in the tropics. This is the case of this house, “casa 3″, situated in the original Acapulco Town, very near the yatch Club that held the nautical activities of the 1968 Olympics, a house build by functionalist architect Hector Mestre in the year 1953, in a complex of 5 house, this particular house with a special condition, that is placed right on the bay with no construction obstructing the view of the old port, the ancient fort and the Modern bay.

Our clients asked for an addition and a renewal, for us the challenge was to conserve the original architecture with the new expectations of living in the 21’st century, more space of storage, new technology and new dynamics and programs in contemporary families.

The addition consists, in redistributing the bathrooms, more open, much more space, and a new living-terrace-bar-dinning space with a new pool facing the bay, as the original pool was placed in a back terrace. The materials are place with the criteria of not competing with the old house but not to be lost with them. Showing what is new and what is old, with out making a competition was a clear strategy for us.

The new area is the main heart of the house, articulating all of the other areas, including an old Salt-water pond in the lower part of the site.