Pixel 57 / Darkitectura

Nov 2010

Uploaded by Andrew Rosenberg — Filed under: Houses ,Selected , Darkitectura, Mexico, Mexico City

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Architects: Darkitectura / Julio Juarez
Location: Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico
Budget: US $ 176,000
Project area: 480 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Yoshihiro Koitani

Located south of Mexico City, with a lakeside subsurface inheritance of the legendary Aztec lake, it develops this 480m2 duplex in a slim residual plot.

Given the extensive program that customers requested, the 2 houses are resolved intertwined and interspersed within the maximum permissible restrictions, generating a large cube that blends with its dense urban environment “kitsch-ecléctico-chilango” developed in the 70′s and 80′s.

drawings

The cube floats to accommodate the access, parking and green areas, it’s separated from their adjacencies to become transparent, giving way to natural light and vertical circulation; also it’s subtracted to create a courtyard and as the exterior faces they parametrically pixel to locate the windows, balconies and skylights. The materials used on the facades cause a scene of brightness and opacity, reflections and shadows that combined with the irregularity of some canopies enhance the effect of asymmetry.

Hanging from the top of the rear facade, a staircase reminiscent of a New York alley leads to the roof terrace that houses a pair of fake containers superimposed for services, this in the midst of a huge terrace where grows a micro-forest of “liquidambares”, typical tree species of the area. This terrace reinforces the idea of roofs used as a method for reforestation of the city and gradually improves the quality of life for users to have these spaces, denied in 90% of the outbuildings that are volumetrically similar.

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: © Yoshihiro Koitani

: drawings

* Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

Cite:
Rosenberg , Andrew . "Pixel 57 / Darkitectura" 19 Nov 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 26 May 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/89432>

Comments (7)
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Alex Gore says:

Very nice integrated design.

# November 19, 2010 at 12:51

Adam says:

This is a really nice planning solution for duplex housing on a narrow site. I’m not sure why it need to be so stylized, the spaces seem to be able to be capable of standing on their own.
The distorted and blurry photography is not enhancing the project, it’s really just annoying.

# November 19, 2010 at 13:47

Lepoche says:

Hi Julio. Long time no see!!!
Very Nice project. Glad to see ur doing good work. I really like the plan solution. Its difficult to work on this type of lots!
Hope to se u soon.

# November 19, 2010 at 20:07

darkitectura says:

Pocho eres tu?

# December 14, 2010 at 21:34

Rick S. says:

I like it a lot. The distribution and integration of the program along the available space is excellent, but… a budget of US $ 176,000? How is that possible?!

# November 20, 2010 at 08:27

you think it is too much? or very economic?

# November 20, 2010 at 21:36

Rick. S. says:

Very economic! US $ 176,000 for 480 sqm makes roughly US $ 366 / sqm. That’s less than half of the regular budget for a building of this quality in Europe! I love it! Congratulations for an excellent work ; )

# November 22, 2010 at 05:56

6:00 PM Nov 19th

Bocetos Digitales

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6:02 PM Nov 19th

Erik Joya

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Devin Givner

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6:04 PM Nov 19th

Ayesha Luciano

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