Casa Roble is the result of a work inspired by the spatial and material distributions of the houses of yesteryear and the return of the patio as a container element for recreational and social activities. The patio as the main concept of the house was the guideline of the project, but the real challenge was to take this space beyond what was planned. Given that the lot was not very large, only 10x19m (32.80x62.33ft), the patio had to be able to expand, be prepared for surprise visits, and a lot of movement. For these reasons a gate was designed that accommodated two clearly divided spaces, the garage, and patio, but this element, when traversed, had to leave room for a large central space. The gate was the indicated element that would give us all this flexibility. Its aesthetic was planned to blend in and not be distinguished literally.
At first glance, the house seems resolved in very simple and closed volumes, with its white clay textures clearly being the protagonists of the space. The latticework of the gate allows for a more intense visual experience for the user, providing privacy and filling the home with light. The entire architectural party revolves around this central element, which generates multiple internal views. The social area is projected on the first floor. The living room, dining room and kitchen are resolved in a single free-plan gallery contained between two outdoor spaces. This allows interaction between the spaces by having floor-to-ceiling windows that run along the sides, allowing air to circulate and the sunlight to enter. The space becomes one, mixing all the environments. As a nod to the past, the lobby is a corridor that has parallel frames of pigmented concrete and pivoted ironwork windows on its side, also generating interaction with the outside, making a clear abstraction of the corridors of convent patios, with their arcades and columns.
The second floor houses the private area, an office corridor and three bedrooms. The circulation of the spaces and the main bedroom open onto views of the patio and in the center of it a large treetop bathes the visuals in green. The house seems contemporary, but at the same time as from another era. This effect is the result of finishes that embody the materiality of the Mexican space. The floor that covers the patio is a pink quarry cobblestone typical of the region, a material that clearly emulates an old patio a that has the peculiarity of changing over time, generating a deeper source of beauty and imperfection.
The clay on the walls, the polished concrete on the floors and the quarry makes the house age gracefully over time, welcoming the effects of nature and allowing history to be visible. Casa Roble was conceived as an architectural artefact created to be inhabited in a flexible way, ready to welcome human social activities while looking at the passage of time. Text description by the architects.
