C294 Apartments

It was a private commission. I met someone related to the project through teaching an architecture seminar. 

That it is an adaptive re-use project of an existing damaged structure, turned into a new residential project. The design carefully studies and adapts to the existing structure, to propose a solution that works with it and at the same creates a new life for the building.

The project draws inspiration from the conditions of the existing structure as well as the re-interpretation of the Art Deco buildings commonly found in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood.

The site is the existing project, which was a damaged concrete structure. The project uses the existing structure as a way to express the exposed-concrete quality found in the building. The new addition blurs the boundaries between old and new and adds areas for landscape, integrating biophilia into the design by dressing it in green living plants and promoting health benefits from integrating nature.

It was a very close collaboration as the design of the building had to adapt to the existing conditions of the structure. The client lives on the top floor.

The project reaffirmed its design as the client was cleaning the existing structure. It was a process similar to archeology where small design decisions had to be made at the time that they were revealed within the existing structure.  

It relates in the way we conceptualize and think of architecture as a whole, where form, structure, material expression, function, program and many more different aspects shape the design of our projects. 

Email interview conducted by John Hill.