Oaxaca, Mexico
Casa De Alma is one of the latest projects delivered by Sonia Morales, lead architect of Espacio 18 Arquitectura, located in the highest part of the northern zone of Oaxaca City, next to an ecological reserve, considered the last refuge of their client, a person who has worked and traveled throughout his life.
In a property with a steep slope and irregular shape, the client, being an elderly person, asked us for a house that would be developed on one floor, with the capacity for social events, services, and private spaces.
The terrain had several virtues, the main one being the view towards the City, where you can appreciate the Central Valleys and the mountains.
The project is in the town of San Felipe del Agua, a residential area but still under development, so the access to the house was urbanized, which generated benefits for the immediate context.
Understanding the context, the architects have generated two concrete volumes that contain the architectural program, the parallelepipeds like two rocks emerging from the ground, as if they wanted to belong to the mountain, adapting to its naturalness.
The two boxes generate an intermediate axis, which is an articulator between the public and the private.
Through vertical subtractions, the team has worked with light creating domes, beams, and windows, the light expands through the space, bathes the walls, and shows us the passage of time.
Understanding the climate of Oaxaca, horizontal and vertical perforations are created to allow cross-ventilation.
In addition, the idea of generating two sober bodies was to keep the landscape as the absolute protagonist, showing it in a playful way throughout the project.
The floors are distributed as follows: the basement for the mechanical rooms and parking, and the first floor contains the services, social area, and bedrooms.
Finally, on the second floor, the private volume offers its coverage to create a terrace that shows a visual spectacle with the best sunsets.
The house is a space of peace, meeting, contemplation, and at the same time a place for introspection in their daily lives.
Project: Casa Del Alma
Architects: Espacio 18 Arquitectura
Lead Architect: Sonia Morales
Design Team: Mario Ávila, Carla Osorio, Sonia Morales, Karina Flores, Paola Alavez, Marco Farias, and Noemié Coquil
Client: Miguel Lopez
Photographers: César Béjar
