Modern Homes Across Mexico

Luis Arturo García, lead designer and partner at EDAA, wanted to create a home that was intimately connected to the natural environment; a home that never closed on itself. This was achieved primarily with pivoting glass doors, allowing the residents to take advantage of the mild climate while maintaining a constant visual relationship to the outdoors.

In an effort to create an abundance of light and air flow throughout the space, the home follows an L-shaped floor plan that wraps around outdoor areas. “We designed several open spaces, each with a different feel: the garden and pool, the terrace, and the back patio,” says Cesarman. “The idea was to reduce the area to the most basic and essential [elements].”

"The longer I work as an architect, the more I want to deepen my skills as a gardener," says Yuri Zagorin Alazraki, founder of the Mexico City firm ZD+A. In building his own house in Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, his commitment has produced results that appear miraculous. In fact, they grow out of a carefully choreographed series of bravura design moves.

While it was AS/D’s idea to create four separate masses instead of a central house, it was the residents who decided on the arrangement of those masses.

For his lakeside retreat just outside Mexico City, architect Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta designed everything from the house to the chairs to the china. Here, his wife, Loredana Dall' Amico, checks out the view from the balcony.

The early-20th-century structure is seen next to the 300 square meter modern addition. A garage and patio were added, as well as a balcony that would complement the proportions of those in the original building. According to Quevedo, the biggest challenge was to approach both structures with a “common language” and explore the idea that “preservation and modernity can coexist.”