The architecture and design blog

Photos: Jaime Navarro.

Although they look as though they are set in a forest, these are apparently four individual houses set in a large garden in the downtown area of the Mexican town of Valle de Bravo. The houses, built in 2009, are vertically arranged in their planning so as to constrain the footprint and therefore save the garden. Read more

Photos: Miguel Angel Aragonés.

Miguel Angel Aragonés, the architect for this house in Mexico City, appears to have an all consuming fascination with the sun. He sees it as revealing architecture, defining its edges and spaces. His approach to design is to capture the sun, manipulate it and finally “seduce” it

Let us see what he means by this with a look at La Palma. Read more

Images: Rojkind Arquitectos.

Earthquake prone Mexico City might not seem like a good place to build towers, but the Latin American tower there is said to be one of the safest places to be in the city during an earthquake!

On that note, Reforma 432, a new tower for the city designed by Rojkind Arquitectos looks likely to be popular. Read more

Photos: Mito Covarrubias and Marcos Garcia.

Dating from 2008 the TOC house, designed by Mexican firm Elias Rizo Arquitectos, is set in a forest in Tapala, Mexico. The house has two sides to its character a formal one and one that hangs out in the garden!

The house is around 3,445 square feet and is single storey set on a generous plot. In plan it is simply arranged as two rectangular volumes set perpendicular to each other. The “vanishing corner” that this arrangement creates forms a generous porch to the front door which is framed in austere high stone walls. Read more

Photos and drawings: DCPP Arquitectos

On a plot of 10 x 20m, half was built upon to create a long thin house of 5 x 20m, the remainder became an outdoor space that is surrounded by a high wall. The house feels private and mysterious, a “black box” located in the southern quarter of Mexico City known as San Angel.

The idea of half the site void and half the site built upon suggests a play with positive and negative space. DCPP Arquitectos also conceived this game would continues at a smaller level into what are seen as the “public areas” of the living accommodation until all that remains are the truly private spaces associated with ablution and cooking. Read more