Chilapa House

C H I L A PA H O U S E

Mexico City, Tlalpan 2013-2018

Dear DWELL,

We´re two Mexico City architects. Married couple. Middle of past 2018 we finished the process of design and construction of our house. We think it might be good material for your pages. Long time Dwell followers, it will be a dream come true to have our own house published by you. 30 years design experience plus a SCIARC Master´s Degree and some UCLA interior design experience as well.

Project included the forced transformation of a very old house (1940´s) and a rearrangement of the whole property.

We´re attaching drawings, pictures (before and after) and a brief text explaining the project. We hope you find it attractive for one of your issues. Front cover will be great!
Please let us know what you think as well as if any additional material might help. Of course, if we go on, we´ll have to shoot some professional photographs.

Our contact information:
ALMX Arquitectura Lógica para México
M. in Arch. Juan Vicente Fernández Ares de Parga
M in Education Laura Chirino Barceló
Office number: 525 63039162
Cellphone: +521 5539555350
Email: juanvfmax@gmail.com
Thanks in advance. Sincerely yours:

M. in Arch. Juan Vicente Fernández Ares de Parga.

M. in Arch. Juan Vicente Fernandez Ares de Parga

Chilapa 126 53 Int. 2 Col. Tlalpan Centro
C.P. 14000 Mexico, City
(5255) 5539555350
(5255) 61039162
juanvfmax@gmail.com

• August 9, 1967. Mexico City.
• Mexican (Also hold Spanish nationality since 2009).
• Married (1993 with Architect LAURA CHIRINO BARCELO.
• 2 Children: Luisa 20, Julian 17.
• Spanish 100%, English 100%, Little Italian.

ACADEMIC

• Bachelor in Architecture at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM.
• Professional degree October 15, 1991 Honorable Mention and best average of the generation.
• Master in Architecture at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIARC), Los Angeles. During 1996 to 1997.
• Member of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM Architecture Faculty Teaching Staff from 1991 to 1994. Design Professor.

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

1990 Project Manager for “Bufete de Arquitectos y Diseñadores, S.A.
Basicaly designing and developing social housing projects. Mexico City.

1991 Project Manager and head of Design Staff for Gorshtein Fasja Arquitectos, S.C.
Relevant projects:

• Reforma Plus 500,000 sq ft. Office building in Mexico, City. Completed
• Plaza San Juan 150,000 sq ft. Retail and office building. Toluca, Edo. De Mexico. Completed
• Amatepec du Park 300,000 sq ft. Luxury home towers. Mexico City. Completed
• Promociones del Bosque Master Plan and Luxury home towers in Mexico City.

1996-97 Project Manager for Widom Wein Cohen. Santa Monica, Ca. Contact Andrea Cohen Gehring, FAIA, LEED AP.

1998-99 Project Manager and Design Staff Director for Grupo BAIA. Working on residential and tourism projects including several projects commissioned by FONATUR.
1999 1999 / 2019. Independent Architectural practice “Arquitectura Lógica para Mexico”.
ALMX Founded in 1999.
• Residential, Retail, Industrial and Tourism projects.
• FONATUR. Most relevant client for Conceptual, Architectural and Master Planning.
• Projects Reference list included in Spanish resume as Arquitectura Logica para Mexico.

C H I L A PA H O U S E

Mexico City, Tlalpan 2013-2018

Before after and now
Renovation and new project for the Chilapa house and property, is based in two fundamental premises:
1) Absolute connection with place and surrounding context to which site and old house (1940´s) belong and
2) Specific and peculiar program demands for a family whose living and use needs are not totally conventional.
1: The house is located within the historical Tlalpan downtown. Tlalpan is a small irregular municipality in which buildings, mainly housing, in a great number date from late 19th century and early 20th. We can even find constructions and monuments that date back to the times of the Spanish colony in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is well known that in the past, the town of Tlalpan performed as a weekend place for wealthy families that lived in the central emerging Mexico City. Properties were large and most of them were developed as haciendas or ranchos. Built constructions were proportionally very small in relation to property extensions. Urban growth in the late decades has finally engulfed Tlalpan into the main Mexico City. As years passed, haciendas and ranchos were subdivided into smaller properties. Chilapa site is the result of one of these subdivisions and it is located in one of the most hidden and charming corners of Tlalpan. Properties are mostly closed to the street and, mostly also, they work inward and so, patios and jardines are a common feature. This is the case for the Chilapa House. The site and the old preexisting house has its own history. In the 1950`s functioned as a hospital for elderly persons, then as a school and in the 1980´s and 90´s a headquarter for an ambulance company. In a way, the architecture of the new house considered all these evolving and changing stages. Also under the subject of preexisting conditions we have to mention that the resulting residence had to contemplate the structure of a one story old house built in the 1940´s. We`ve torn down a large wall that defined spaces in the old construction and we´ve substituted it with iron beam structures. All of the new house spaces are now opened to the house green patio. In the back part of the old building, preexisting rooms have been renovated and they organize along an hacienda like walkway that allows to recall past times. Three new bedrooms have been built in top of the original construction without altering preexisting structural and layout conditions. A double height space has been designed where a washing and ventilation patio used to be.
2: The Program. Demands on use and habitability should consider:
a) Architecture Design office. ALMX. Owners and designers of the house happens to be a husband and wife architect marriage. Independent design practice and architecture teaching as their main activities. The architects decided to design and build the design office as a beginning stage with the purpose of banishing rental expenses in other locations. The office has been designed through a long and narrow space that used to be storage and washrooms.
b) Flamenco study room. She, architect and Flamenco dancer and teacher, needed a space or such purpose. As for the design office, the Flamenco studio has been located in an independent space of the house, open to the garden.
c) TV game gym lounge. As for the previous, the TV lounge, gym game space of the house, was located in a renovated space that in the past years was used as rooms for the care of the elderly. Daughter and son in their teen years and both high performance athletes, needed a space for working and relaxation.
Rest of the house falls into conventional living solutions and needs. Living, dinning, open kitchen and cabinets, studio, bedrooms, garage, storage and so on.
All cabinets and furniture has been designed by architect’s owners and done by local carpenters as well as welding and iron details.
The aesthetic criteria of the project responds simply to building and material use of traditional Mexican architecture. Architects have obviously included an intention of modernity in the detail solutions of the house but never abandoning the forms, colors, textures, materials and longtime Mexican building procedures.
Renovated structure: 3,300 sq. ft.
New structure: 1650 sq.ft.
Total budget for construction: 200,000 usd