Project Description
This project is part of the Apan Housing Laboratory, which is featured in the August 2019 issue of ARCHITECT.
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
A single-story concrete block residence, the Self-Designed House (Casa Autodiseño) is designed for construction by its owners. Arranged around two courtyards—one a semi-public forecourt and another a private garden—the home expands already generous interior living spaces toward the exterior. Fronting the fully glazed main living volume (housing the kitchen, dining, and bathroom spaces), this semi-public courtyard doubles available living space while encouraging a more public, less inwardly focused exterior living. Bedrooms filling a second volume open to the second, gardened courtyard. Despite is walled edges, the house claims a more civic presence through its brightly colored metal roof, set at an angle to the rest of the house, and through perforated block coursing that softens perimeter enclosure.
Notes: The primary element of this project is its roof. Thoughtfully rotated over the residence’s two volumes, this roof defines two courtyards at the extremes of the house’s sociality: semi-public and entirely private. Extending beyond the home’s perimeter wall, this roof simultaneously tempers the severity of the perimeter wall, instead presenting this primary element as an object for viewing in the round. Any growth will not occur within this base unit, but instead with new construction or unit duplication.
Project Details:
State: Tlaxcala
Municipality: Nanacamilpa de Mariano Arista
Climate: Temperate
House Price: —
Constructed Surface: 43.62
Floor-to-ceiling height: 4.1 M
Roof Type: Shed/Other
Orientation: —
Growth Option(s): —
Title: Self-Designed House
Wall Type: CMU
Floor Type: Exposed Concrete with Polyurethane Seal
Structure: CMU
Roofing: Wood-framed with Corrugated Metal
Details: Wood Doors and Windows
Finishes: —
Project Credits:
Project: Self-Dedigned House, Apan Housing Laboratory
Architect: Zago Architecture