Pavilion Inspired by Japanese Architecture and Constructed with Bamboo

Located in a quiet street in one of the most emblematic neighborhoods in Mexico City, this project is an intervention that has its roots on the understanding of the urban and social dynamics in Mexico City. Lirio 7 has an interesting history; as an Art Déco building, originally housed public baths during the 30s, then in the 50s became a sanatorium, and before its abandonment, it was the headquarters of a security company. Considering this conditions, we took advantage from an abandoned building without any recognized heritage value by local authorities, to restore it and offer a specific model of housing that recovers the historical value of Santa María La Ribera neighborhood. The design process is based on the concept of a central patio and its perimeter circulation, which was adapted into a new layout to create 12 new apartments where the main corridor becomes part of the home. In this type of buildings, this circulation is a public place and the challenge on making it private leads to define an enclosure that plays with the visuals. The dwellings are arranged around the patio, orienting their view to it, which is considered as a place of introspection, not so much as circulation. Concrete elements of different heights acts as planters, dampen the sound of the water from the recovered fountain and support the discourse of circulations, interposing themselves to the visuals, again to guide and give privacy to the user. Each of the houses therefore has ventilation and daylight entrance. The first and second floors have a greater free height, typical of the original construction moment, allowing a greater volume of use of spaces. The third level, from the 50s as well as the new structures implemented on deck, maintain a standard height more like that the required by current construction regulations. A perforated concrete prism, outstands from the patio’s façade, creating a visual contrast without stealing it protagonism. With a different materiality and density from the rest of the project, this volume patches the view from the outside, creating a light and shadows game towards the last apartment, and allows the user to enjoy the views.

Sited gently on the lower slope of a dramatic sixty foot high coastal bank and surrounded by miles of undeveloped Cape Cod National Seashore beaches and scrub pines is a warm, modern beach house that is more than just a place to enjoy uninterrupted ocean views and sea breezes. Our clients dreamed of a house that would work equally well as both a year-round family “camp” and also as a “thinking retreat” for collaborating with their colleagues. From the beginning of design it was critically important to us and to our clients – as well as the Town Conservation Commission and National Seashore representatives – that the house fit into its fragile site seamlessly. Our team responded with great care by designing the house to curve and shift softly with the natural topography and also by envisioning the new native and drought resistant landscaping growing back tight to the house as if both had always been there together. The main house is conceived of as a collage of overlapping, cantilevered planes and volumes that culminate in a large living / dining space defined by an asymmetrically arcing copper roof plane. Entry to the house is by way of a long ramp through what will in a few years be a thicket of native pines and bushes, then through curving cedar shingled planes. The inland side of the house is tucked into its shifting, sandy landscape and is comprised of cedar shingled planes that float above the ground and contain bedrooms, bathrooms, and the kitchen, and lower volumes of horizontal tongue and groove cedar boards that enclose bedrooms and a gathering space for teenage sons. On the Cape Cod Bay side, the house opens up through walls of glass to endless water views and heavenly sea breezes. In the middle of the house, just inside the front door, is an architectural “hole” that allows the house to breathe and cool itself naturally most of the year through its floor to ceiling awning windows, and which also provides views of the sky from a shady breezeway on the lower level. Along one wall of the hole is a trellis planted with evergreen and seasonally aromatic flowering vines. On the Cape Cod Bay side, the house opens up through walls of glass to endless water views and heavenly sea breezes. In the middle of the house, just inside the front door, is an architectural “hole” that allows the house to breathe and cool itself naturally most of the year through its floor to ceiling awning windows, and which also provides views of the sky from a shady breezeway on the lower level. Along one wall of the hole is a trellis planted with evergreen and seasonally aromatic flowering vines. Separated from the main house by a screen porch and contiguous deck, is a separate art / yoga / thinking studio that seemingly floats fourteen feet above the ground. Inside is a single large loft space as well as a full bath, and below is an open-air summer art studio and boat / beach toy storage, behind walls of wood slats and matching barn doors.

Located between Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown and ‘The Remarkables’ mountain
range, the Twin Peak house draws inspiration from its wider landscape. This house was awarded the regional Winner and National Finalist of the 2019 ADNZ Architectural Design Awards. “The client’s brief was to design a beautifully simple home which was, functional,
energy efficient and flooded with natural light. The house had to be positioned to
capture the stunning Jack’s Point views” says Daniel Friedrich of DF Design – Sustainable Architecture, the Raglan based firm that designed it.