Glass boxes frame a tennis court, health club and pool set into the basement of this Mexico apartment constructing, which is formed from a series of stacked concrete blocks that cascade down a hill in direction of a wooded glen .
Photograph by Onnis Luque
Created by Aflo Arquitectos, the Reforma 2394 apartment block sits in an affluent neighbourhood on Paseo de la Reforma, a wide boulevard that cuts diagonally by way of the heart of Mexico City.
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
To match the hillside plot, the creating was conceived as a series of stacked concrete blocks that descend the slope in the direction of an area of woodland – a popular treatment method for sloping internet sites, with recent examples which includes a property on a slope in the Rhine Valley and a submerged concrete home overlooking an Italian lake.
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
This arrangement diminishes the stature of the constructing from the street, offering it the physical appearance of a two-storey block. The uppermost storey overhangs the ground floor block and is punctured by a prolonged panoramic window overlooking a water feature in the building’s forecourt.
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
“The venture is found in one particular of the most unique places in Mexico City,” stated the architects, “flying in excess of a glen, and structured 1 more than the other to turn out to be a cascade of concrete aspects.”
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“The major idea was to design and style stacking homes that generate independent relations to neighbours, incorporating worth with the common areas – pool, tennis court, gymnasium, square and typical area.”
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
A pair of ramps lead down at the side of the building to a double-storey underground automobile park, while measures carry on down to the personal residences and glen.
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
The six apartments contained inside the stepped blocks range amongst 400 and one,200 square metres. Each has its own private entrance and a garden that occupies the roof of the apartment under.
Photograph by Onnis Luque
“The principal challenge of the task is [retaining] the healthful distance of the owners to turn out to be not a easy apartment but a casa of their very own,” mentioned the architects. “The concept has been extremely effectively acquired as the developing is full with six content owners with minimal interaction.”
Photograph by Onnis Luque
Shared facilities like a pool, gym, tennis court and spa are set inside of glass boxes on the fifth basement degree, which also supplies entry to the glen.
Relevant content: see more stacked block architecture
While the constructing has predominantly concrete finishings, the flooring within every single of the glassed-in locations differs based on its perform – wood for the gymnasium, grass for the courts and stone for the pool.
Photograph by Rafael Gamo
Residents can enjoy views of the secluded woodland through the glass walls that surround the pool, whilst a narrow border around the tennis courts gives a space to observe matches.
Photograph by Onnis Luque
Nearby in Paseo de la Reformas Mexican architect Fernando Romero – who is also accountable for the city’s anvil-shaped museum of Latin American art – is building a public park above a 10-lane road.
Photograph by Onnis Luque
Romero is also working with Norman Foster on a new worldwide airport on the outskirts of the city. In accordance to the venture crew, its lightweight glass and steel structure, which will feature spans of over one hundred metres to generate a vaulted roof, will be “like nothing at all else in the world”.
Task credits:
Architecture: Enrique Macotela Dosal DDP & José Andrés Flores Rivera A.flo Arquitectos / Juan Pablo Serrano SMA
Builder: DDP + Postensa / Convive
Structural engineer: Postensa + Esteban Astudillo
Builder surveyor: A.flo Arquitectos
Undertaking collaborators: Ricardo Mendez
Ground floor plan 
Segment Dezeen
