Article source: LEAP Laboratorio en Arquitectura Progresiva
West Point Convenience Center is a retail venue and the most visible component of a mixed use development located on the westside of Guadalajara. The master plan of the complex is comprised of eight high-rise vertical housing buildings in a gated community with inner pedestrian walkways, a park and controlled access points. The retail venue, although it is an integral part of the master plan, is at the forefront of the complex outside the gated community and with large green areas on both sides of the building. The preeminent location of the building within the master plan and its relationship with the public avenue demands an architectural approach to give the building an iconic presence. It is important to highlight that the Convenience Center will be also a focal point from the views of the eight apartment buildings on the background, and therefore the design of the roof was as important as the design of the main facades at street level. The result is a triangular faceted architectural object with two wide openings at each end where the second level restaurants are located and a screen that randomly becomes more transparent towards the center of the building. The complexity of the geometry of this element contrast with the seemingly simple geometry of the first floor, both bodies are articulated through the rhythm of the columns. The construction material proposed for the upper body of the building is Cor-Ten steel, a material that naturally covers itself of protective rust, making it a maintenance free material. Three steel chimneys contrast with the rusty look of the building and are the exhaust ducts of the restaurants inside the Convenience Center.
REFUSE! Is an indoor cycling studio in Guadalajara, designed by EstudioFernandaOrozco.
The inspiration for this project comes from the Tour the France, the largest cycling race in the world, an athletic event with tradition, multiculturalism and full of colors through the uniforms and elements of cycling.
Casa L&J sits next to a golf course which influenced the project greatly. An equilibrium between the views and privacy was to be achieved for the clients. The result is an L scheme with the main volume of the house serving as barrier between the private areas and golf course. This volume is done entirely in steel and glass with a pitched roof with black, flat tiles.
Said volume functions as a ‘shotgun shack’: an elongated distribution of spaces that permeates from the very public to the private. On one end, where the main entrance is, a great living room has a fireplace, living area, piano and dining area. A stair case is located on one side next to wooden box that encloses the bar and storage area. This piece of fixed furniture intentionally blocks the views towards the garden and forces the user to contemplate the golf course. Next to the dining room a rammed earth volume, which contains the pantry, laundry room and guest bathroom, separates the great living room from the kitchen and family room, which operates oposite to the living area. It is enclosed by a similar fixed piece of furniture that houses part of the kitchen, a book case with the TV and a small stove. It blocks the view from the golf course and forces itself toward the garden and pool area. Next to the family room, a double hight art studio es located at the end of the volume and has it’s own work patio on one end and on the other the hallway that connects to the bedroom wing of the house.
“UTERE FELIX DOMUM TUAM” (Happily live your house)
With this phrase tattooed in one of its concrete walls, we print our wishes for the future owner of the house, as a matter of fact all our house plans for a while now have that phrase in them, reminding us that is the most important goal in this type of building. From this phrase as well, the official name of Domus Tuam House was taken, “Your House”.
Emplaced in the south suburbs of Guadalajara, near a large commercial complex, in a small, quiet condominium surrounded by trees called “La Fresna”, the house is composed by 312 sq. m. divided in two stories. Its a house meant to be sold, so we planned it in a way that its finishes and dimensions were commercial and profitable according to the financial analysis, but without forgetting the high standard architectural detail and quality that our firm requires.
Design Team: Carlos Lassala Mozo, Guillermo R. Orozco and Orozco, Nazdira Rodriguez Vera, Jose Antonio Garrido Briseño, Andres Escudero Reynaud, Luis Alfonso Sanchez Gomez, Priscilla Valencia Ramos
The project is located near to the Primavera forest, where nature merges with the project.
The house emerges as a place of retreat. The client calls for the project as “stacked boxes” as she does not live with curves or inclined ways, hence arises the idea of the house-container.
The house expresses the search for an introspective architecture, an architecture that envelopes itself, where privacy is the best gift.
The project is an evolution of the concept of the screen wall, an idea arising from the exercise of homes in gated communities, where the search for privacy and wealth of interior space, cause a mechanism of introspection. The site, between party walls, is located in the foothills of the spring forest in the city of Guadalajara Mexico. The distribution reflects the direction of the terrain: west-east.
The house is located on a gated community, to the west of the metropolitan area in Zapopan, México. The land is located at the end of the subdivision which you need to access by passing through a roundabout with an old laurel.
The project was developed in a short period of time; however the construction took a little longer than expected but the approved design did not suffer any changes because the owners always respected the original idea.
The terrain is a flat and raised platform, the house is positioned on a north-south axis generating an extraordinary view towards the west, where almost all views are directed to. On the front there is a steep street, allowing the entries on two different levels: the main level, where the social area of the house is located and the other in the basement, for cars and services. The third level contains the private areas of the house.
This project, named [ N ] House, was designed to enhance a particular local tradition that is about building the living spaces of a house around a patio, this as a consequence of the client’s request: a couple with two young daughters.
The [ N ] House is based on three levels: garage area is located in the basement together with service areas and a game room. The stairway, attached to the central wall, creates a spatial connection between all these different levels of the house, also acting as the meeting point for dwellers right in the moment when they exit the private rooms.
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