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Architects: ET.co
- Area: 1776 ft²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Marcos Rojas Sosa, Omar López Bautista, Alfredo Ortíz
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Manufacturers: Cemex
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Lead Architect: Omar López Bautista
Text description provided by the architects. Casa VA is located in the middle part of a slope of “Cerro del Fortín”, in an area of complex accessibility and that is still under development, very close to the historical down town area in Oaxaca city. The steeply sloping land has only pedestrian access from an alley that connects to a main street thirty meters away and a difference in level of approximately twelve meters.
The project seeks to solve, through clear and simple language, with a well-defined geometrical form, a multitude of questions that arise when specifically inhabiting such a land; from having two independent spaces in the same element (apartment and house), protecting and giving prominence to two “huajes” (native tree from which the name Oaxaca derives), which are located at the bottom of the land, having views of the city and the mountains as the main axis, fictitiously isolating itself from the neighbors, keeping the only flat area of the land at the top free and ensuring that structural elements allow it to house part of the architectural program; to using materials and colors required by cultural heritage city regulations.
The house consists of two upper floors and a basement in which the main entrance is located and it is through a lobby area that access to the apartment is given, and through a staircase made with stone from the same place to the main body.
The apartment, with a raw materiality, made of apparent concrete, has a kitchen-dining room and bathroom at basement level, a space that is generated by dividing and opening the retaining wall at the bottom of the land, making it habitable; and a bedroom with city views on the ground floor. The main body located on the upper floors, combining apparent materials and bright colors, houses on the ground floor a bedroom with a view and access to the rear garden, the kitchen, a bathroom, a service patio and a double-height space living-dining room with a exposed structure cover and triangular geometry which has floor-to-ceiling windows and views of the city. On the first level there is the master bedroom, bathroom, dressing room and a private terrace with panoramic views of the city.
Casa VA is the result of a complex construction and logistical challenge, where the complicated location and access made it impossible to use special machinery in the process, forcing everything to be carried out by hand, from excavations to the transfer of the materials that were placed piece by piece.
The House is a living expression of physical effort and an example of the quality of the builders' work. Through a clear and concrete form and the maximum use of the structural system, it manages to domesticate and inhabit a very complex place, where now the result feels so natural that it allows us to perceive and focus on the views as the real stars.
