Garden House Escandón / CPDA Arquitectos

Curated by Clara Ott

“CASA JARDIN ESCANDÓN” located at 19 Agricultura Street in the Escandón neighborhood of Mexico City, the housing development is a mixed-use complex with Street level commerce. The Escandón neighborhood with a recent boom in past years, with that fresh and youthful vibe, where art deco buildings coexist with new contemporary buildings.

CPDA designed the project to live towards the interior of the complex a narrow but deliciously verdant inner courtyard is tucked into the spine complex, fostering a tranquil yet sociable feeling through the building. Bringing natural light and cross-ventilation into each of the 14 homes, the compact space is navigated by a zig-zagging path that accommodates triangular balconies for a pair of ground floor apartments.

The volume covered in Galarza Stone has exactly that traditional inspiration that identifies the neighborhood. With a gabled facade facing the Street where the concrete slabs stand out, which in turn on the first level stand out from its alignment to generate balconies to allow a freer relationship with the outside in the social areas of the residential interior. On the other hand, the interior facades towards the central courtyard have a different language, where a game of different windows, openings and gabled roofs are generated, to create a simple, dynamic, fun and ingenious form of the complex.

The light Galarza bricks offer a crisp yet tactile backdrop for the courtyard´s rich greenery, while earth tones on the windows and railings reinforce a grounded, soothing ambiance. In a small courtyard, the unfussy combination of light tones and subtle brick articulation also make for a more comfortable space.

Four suites – each with a private green space – occupy the ground floor, with 10 larger three-storey apartments above. Catering to families, the townhouse-style homes on the upper levels each feature a private rooftop garden. Atop the brick-clad form that defines the building´s street level presence, the uppermost storey combines outdoor green space with discrete dusty pink residential volumes set back from the courtyard. From above, it´s a graceful accent on the tree-lined local skyline.

The central courtyard of the project houses a variety of native plants and species tolerant to sunlight, whose familiarity with the local climate negates the need for much maintenance in the future. A space that invites you to reflect and contemplate the central garden and its different species of plants and flowers. This interior garden is the most important element of the design proposal, where we look for a magical presence where architecture creates the space for permanence and contemplation. Carefully considering the distance, orientation and arrangement of the balconies facing the central courtyard, the result is a discreet, private and peaceful interaction between the residents and their shared “secret garden”.

The access was designed as a cave with a gabled ceiling, which felt as if it had been carved out of the stone volume and functioned as this traditional space between the street and the interior of the complex. Where the visitors are received with a view frame by the light, the landscape and the stone, a moment where the person moves away from the reality of the city.

The result is a physical manifestation of the idea that architecture can connect with the built environment and the natural environment, adding its benefits to offer a more complete and harmonious life experience.