Archisteem 29: Friendly Architecture Curation - A Unique Mexican House

Today's curated project: The Kampung House in Mexico

Today, let us go to Mexico for a glimpse at their rural house design. It is somewhat different in comparison to our local Malay Kampung house but it is also blended well with the context. I found it fascinating to learn about how people build their houses in rural and urban. However, in this case, the house is meant for a studio.

This individual studio house project is led by TACO taller de arquitectura contextual a local Mexican architect firm and took place in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The project covered an approximate 135m² of 2 stories individual house unit and was completed in 2018.

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This is the first time I curate about Mexico house. From the article, it is understood that the project is a multifunctional building (office + residential) that was built within a 2.5 hectares of land filled with different type of palm trees. That is a very big land which the house could be a mansion. However, the client decided to have a small and humble version which surprised me.

The concept of the building is to connect the nature and people at the same time while being a functional, versatile and inspiring building. The architecture studio is the main functional space for the building while supported by supplementary spaces like a living room, kitchenette, bathroom, store room, central patio and roof terrace. Some spaces are open for the public to linger around especially to the local community. This is a special way of design whereby a private office allows local to use the space too.

Talking about its construction method and materials, it is different from Malaysia’s method which interested me. The construction system is based on blocks, joists and cement slabs while in Malaysia is more to column and beam with bricks. The roof of the building was cast in situ with waterproof concrete and insulated with polystyrene panels. This forms a seamless connection between the wall and roof, making it like a complete geometry. In terms of the building system, it had hydro-sanitary that separate grey and black waters, to be specific are by using a grease trap and a biodigester.

As for materials, the idea is to have a minimal maintenance finishes. The floors are made of white concrete and precast concrete. I love the walls and ceilings that plastered with stucco and used the earth tone that blends well with the site. The color choice was also the site’s popular architecture which well mixes with existing flora and fauna. Plus, the aquatic gardens in the building also function as mosquito controllers which make the building more livable.

As a whole, the building abstracts the qualities from the regional architectural heritage of the Mayan vernacular architecture, the Franciscan convents and the functionality of the Yucatan haciendas. So, it is like a collection of different architectural style essence into one building.

This could be a new experience if it is built in Malaysia, what say you if it is built here as a recreational resort?

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Source of images used and reference article. Click here

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Hope you enjoy the curation. If you have any projects that you wished to be curated, do drop a comment to me. Any critics and suggestions about my curation are welcome!

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This is an #archisteem post.

A new tag that is to curate our existing built environment and also future built environment development. Want to know more? Read here.

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Find me at @kimzwarch