Architecture studio Cadaval & Solà-Morales has transformed a standard white brick home in Mexico City into an apartment complex, with the addition of a row of black penthouses .
The Córdoba-Reurbano Housing Building is located in the city’s Colonia Roma neighbourhood, which was devastated by an earthquake in 1985.
A 1920s building survived the earthquake but was not too long ago left unoccupied following the death of its proprietor.
Developer Re-Urbano appointed Spain- and Mexico-primarily based Cadaval & Solà-Morales to repurpose the residence as a residential complicated, creating nine apartments as well as retail spaces dealing with the street.
“We retained as a lot of the current home as achievable and the configuration of the apartments, which are all diverse, was dictated by the various spaces,” architect Kecho Quenke told Dezeen.
In accordance to Quenke, “95 per cent” of the original creating was stored intact, regardless of neighborhood regulations only requiring the preservation of the main facade.
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The new apartments are slotted inside and on leading of the present construction in a way that is developed to minimise signs of interventions.
The unique property occupied the bulk of the plot and was arranged along one particular edge of its boundary, with a little courtyard developed by a recessed part.
An extension additional in place of a derelict service spot in direction of the rear of the plot now wraps around a 2nd courtyard to type an overall symmetrical prepare.
Supplies were carefully applied to maintain consistency amongst the outdated and new sections of the complicated, though the distinctions are noticeable if inspected closely.
Each the historic and modern structures are clad in brick, but the cleaner, industrially produced brick of the new addition distinguishes it from the aged, rough surfaces of the authentic developing.
Tall, narrow windows also offer you a modern day counterpoint to the much more standard openings in the historic facades.
The floor within the present developing was dropped 1.5 metres below its authentic level by excavating the earth behind the facades.
This enabled the apartments accommodated in these spaces to be spread over multiple storeys – up to three in some spots.
On prime of the existing structure, a totally glazed storey assists to minimize the visual fat of the vertical extension containing the penthouses.
The degree over this features black angular roofs and terraces, making a varying profile that additional decreases the solidity of the addition.
“The notion was to develop 3 bands,” Quenke explained. “1 in white of the existing house and the back addition, an additional one particular in glass to separate the house from the black roofs, and ultimately the terraces and the inclined roofs.”
By painting the stuccoed surfaces black, the extension seems as a separate volume to the previous property. The ridged rooftops accommodate double-height glazed surfaces that all encounter east so they are not ignored by their neighbours.
Every single penthouse has a tiled roof terrace, some of which lengthen above several levels and onto the sloping portions of the roof.
The interiors of the apartments all differ as their rooms overlap across the different levels. Exposed brickwork and other raw surfaces, which includes concrete and untreated wood offset by white-painted walls, produce some consistency during the spaces.
Photography is by Miguel de Guzmán.
Task credits:
Real estate Notion: Re-Urbano
Collaborators: Olivier Arditi, Catherine Nguyen
Structural Engineer: Ricardo Camacho
Contractor: Eugenio Eraña & Juan Carlos Cajiga
Site prepare 
Basement program 
Ground floor program 
Ground floor mezzanine plan 
Initial floor plan 
Initial floor mezzanine program 
2nd floor program 
Third floor strategy 
Area one particular 
Area two 
Segment three 
Part four Dezeen
