OL House

OL house has 9127 sqft. Sited in Real del Valle Escondido, a gated community in the northern outskirts of Mexico City. This location is surrounded by nature and a diverse topography.

The client of this project is a family of four. The parents are both lawyers in their two teenage daughters. The design is based on the residents’ daily life and on the needs it demands.

We knew that the kitchen had to be a special place because she loves cooking and using the room as a place to share with her daughters. While he enjoys the outdoors and we share this idea of integration (outside/inside), so this concept was also key in the design process. Furthermore, we were aware that they both would have to drive long distances to work, so their house had to feel like an escape from reality.

The main access to the house is a bridge and, once inside, it turns into the main hallway and main axis of the house out of which all the common rooms connect to. The bedrooms, gym, and media room are located in the upper floor. Although the hallway ends at the bottom glass-wall, it extends to the outside as a water mirror surface. Volumetrically, this scheme allows the landscape to flow to the inside and outside, eliminating the division between house and garden.

The selection of materials played a big role in our goal to achieve integration. Concrete and steel define the structural elements, sometimes taking a major role in the design.
Another key material used to emphasize the elements of the project was marble. We decided on two types of travertine marble: silver and gray. The silver one works as a solid structure, while the gray one is used to emphasize certain aspects of the design.