Architects: R79 – Roberto Ramírez Pizarro
Project: Abierta House
Location: Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
Year 2016
Photographer: David Cervera Castro
Abierta house is a project for a couple of my dearest friends. A small piece of land in one of the most exclusive developments in the city was the perfect excuse to put on practice what the project represents itself: unfold the barrier between the outdoor and the indoor space. The sober almost solid front facade, force us to imagine the secrets that hides behind the walls, later we find out suddenly the complete space just across the door. This is how we start to realize the fine connection between the space and the exterior area.
The layout of the house is very simple, downstairs the public space looks through an exterior terrace and continues to the pool and the garden. This horizontal succession of the space allows every room to have a view of the outside and let the possibility to enter the indoor public spaces from the outside.
The vertical connection between the public and the private space is through a stair that turns around a tree, while this grows looking for light. Upstairs the bedrooms combine windows with shutters that give a proper identity to the back facade, while providing privacy to the occupants. Taking advantage of the anomaly in the ground, it was decided to generate a space for entertaining underneath the terrace.
The use of colors and materials was carefully selected for the architecture and interiorism, as well as the design and choosing of the furniture and the lighting. The material palette is very simple, the change in the rhythm and modulation is what achieve an interesting combinations and contrast in the space. Chukum, wood, stone, glass, steal, concrete tiles, are the principal elements used. The plants are fundamental, present in every facets of the project. We see local species like the Chacá tree repeatedly in the space mix with other species with different colors and heights.
