Casa Sayavedra

 
The house is located in the Condado de Sayavedra development of the Zona Esmeralda in Estado de México. Construction was planned in two stages: first the common areas and the services, toward the front of the lot; then the three bedrooms, a studio, and a gymnasium. The first stage has been completed, with the library serving provisionally as a bedroom and the service area as bathroom and dressing room. The design exploits the natural slope of the lot (10 meters) and optimizes circulations. Several 6 × 6 meter volumes, overlapping one another, create a series of rooftop terraces.
The house borders on a wooded area to the west, so most of the views look east, with existing trees acting as light filters. The common areas (kitchen, living room, dining room, and terrace) form a continuous space that is transformed, in accordance with its function, by variations in height and penetrations of the exterior terraces into the interior.

The structure is a system of 4-inch rectangular profile tubes every 1.5 meters, which also serves for the fenestration. The windows are modular pieces that can be inserted where needed. The rest of the house is of exposed concrete, the pattern of the formwork repeating the modulations of the structure. These elements allow the woods into the house and terraces, as the floor slabs disappear and the object becomes one more element in the landscape.
 

 
Mauricio Rocha Iturbide (Mexico City, 1965) graduated from the Architecture School of the UNAM in 1990. From 1992 to 1998 he taught in the UNAM's Max Cetto Workshop. In 2002 he was awarded the Silver Medal at the VII Mexican Architecture Biennial for his Center for the Visually Impaired in Mexico City. In 2004 he won the Gold Medal and First Prize at the VIII Mexican Architecture Biennial for the San Pablo Oztotepec market en Milpa Alta. He holds a fellowship from the Sistema Nacional de Creadores of the FONCA (2005-2008) and is a tutor in the Young Creators Program.