Through a central garden surrounded by rooms and terraces, La Hacienda offers a resting and coexistence space in Tepoztlán, Morelos. The wooden roof and tiles around the courtyard frame the Tepozteco mountain so the users can maintain an intimate relationship with the environment from anywhere in the house. The private spaces provide a different experience with close views of a second courtyard and stone perimetral walls bathed by sunlight that permeates through the pergola in the roof. In a fractal way, the distribution of the program and the scheme definition in the plan unfold a series of concentric experiences that shape the hypnotic scenes of nature that the building generates.
The project reflects on the typology of the weekend house and the specificities it requires in a given context. The program questions the predominant practice of fencing off a property, inserting a building, and landscaping the remaining area. The house does the opposite; it becomes a livable wall that contains a garden in its center. The building acts like a threshold that slowly reveals the vegetation, water, and fire inside it to the spectator. The warm material palette which alternates between wood, stone, brick, and chukum allows walking the house barefoot, deconstructing the hermetic division between exterior and interior spaces. Therefore, the programmatic frontiers created in the perimeter of the house by staple-shaped walls become blurred, allowing the inhabitants to constantly modify the space according to the number of occupants and their activities.
On a rainy day, the water enters the patio dripping over the tiles, watering the garden, filling the pool, and delivering a contemplative experience. On a sunny day, the light makes the endemic vegetation stand out while the roof allows for constant shading and ventilation. The courtyard becomes the diaphragm that regulates the interactions between the territorial scale defined by the view of the mountain with the human scale which is motivated by our mammalian instinct which seeks a place of protection. Designing a house manifests the posture of living. In a place where cell signal y very low, electric light fluctuates, and in drought times there’s little to no water, the project gives an emphasis on promoting and making accessible the things that were always there: the mountain, nature, and calm.
Architects: Práctica Arquitectura – http://www.practicaarquitectura.com/
Location: Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico
Area: 875 m²
Year: 2021
Photographer: César Béjar + Oscar Hernández
Lead Architect: David Martínez Ramos
Design Team: José Flores Buzo, Eduardo Sosa, Andrés Dillon
Lighting Design: David Martínez Ramos
Landscape Desgin: David Martínez Ramos
Civil Works: CS8X
Structural Carpentry: L atelier