Mexico City, Mexico
XOMA is a seven-story, 52,000-square-foot hotel completed by BA Collective and Grupo Anima, ready to immerse guests in the experience of living locally in Mexico City’s historic Roma Norte neighborhood.
For its design , the project has recently been awarded a 2023 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies.
The 14 guest suites are configured as one and two-bedroom units (625 SF / 1,100 SF) with full kitchens and private balconies.
The hotel includes a ground-floor restaurant and lobby with an adjacent demonstration kitchen.
Other amenities include a gym, rooftop terrace, and pool with dramatic views of the city’s skyline.
Permeable sculptural façades, fabricated and assembled on-site by local masons, create a pattern of solids and voids that rise from the street up above the tree canopy.
Vertical apertures between the double-curvature facade elements reveal the balconies, partially enclosed by the block screens, allowing natural light and fresh air to reach interior rooms.
The building design plan is organized to maximize floor area, meet open area requirements, and take advantage of a zoning allowance to provide partially enclosed balconies above the ground floor as long as the walls and floors are porous.
This strategy allows balconies for all guest suites without reducing interior floor area.
Additionally, the building mass incorporates three distinct voids to provide the required open space.
One void contains open-grate guest suite balconies, another contains a partially screened spiraling exit stair, and the third provides a central atrium around which all circulation is organized.
While the building form is contemporary, the tactile beauty of the handcrafted masonry assembly recalls the architectural heritage of the region.
Project: XOMA
Architects: BA Collective
Lead Partner Architects: Hagy Belzberg, Brock DeSmit, and Jennifer Wu
Lead Designers: Jessica Hong and Josh Hanley
Design Team: David Cheung, Adrian Cortez, Mingyue Hu, Kris Leese, Aaron Leshtz, Corie Saxman, Filipa Lima Valente, Katelyn Miersma, and Melissa Yip
Architects of Record: Grupo Anima
Design Team: Alberto Djaddah, Carlos Pacheco, Hugo Balderas, Jacobo Levy, and Daniel Balmori
General Contractor: Grupo Anima
Client: Grupo Anima
Photographers: Bruce Damonte
