Casa Bruma in Mexico is a project that redefines the idea of a house and structures different spaces around a large patio. This solution by Fernanda Canales was conceived in order to maintain the existing trees of the land and so that each space of the house received morning and afternoon light. This produced a sort of exploited house, where the dwelling is composed of blocks that lean towards the views and orientation, while respecting the original vegetation.
The program is distributed in nine blocks, so each zone has a certain independence and, at the same time, a relation with the different spaces. The blocks of kitchen-dining room-living room and children’s room are linked by roofed corridors. The rest: two blocks for guest rooms, services and garage finish to form the central courtyard and allow each block to face this courtyard and open to the other end generating private, but fully open views to the landscape. Two blocks have terraces on the roof, while the rest are green roofs.
Each block has a different height that corresponds both to its particular location within the topography with steep slopes and to the different hierarchies of each space. The living room is located on a second level, above the children’s room and on a study that has its own terrace. A larger study is located over the dining room and from there, one of the terraces on the roof can be accessed, which is located above the room. The other roof terrace is accessed from a staircase in the central courtyard, which highlights the independence of the blocks, but also the sequences and the communications that exist between them.
The house is made up of four materials: apparent black concrete, wood, stone and glass. Each block adapts to the topography and makes the volumes appear and disappear in the landscape. The color and the stony condition of the house helps giving the project a timeless character. The access is the point where this becomes more palpable, since it is a semi-hidden route where fragments of the blocks appear that lead the user in a slow and stepped way to the patio, where the blind blocks appear and open towards the transparent steps that connect the main areas. These steps open both to the patio and the exterior landscape and reveal a series of views that somehow penetrate the protected area of the courtyard. Thus, while the patio closes to the outside, it also anticipates what is on the other side of the different blocks.
Design and info © Fernanda Canales
Images © Rafael Gamo
