Casa Morelia
House Renovation
Team: Sustrato, Ser, Plataforma dp, Jorge Islas, Julieta Loya, Victor Ramírez & Ivonne Cossio
Contractor: Jonathan Fuentes
Photographs: Santiago de la Puente, Kevin Ríos
Location: Mexico City
Area: 200 sq m
Year: 2013 - 2017
The neocolonial design was now exposed and fused with a sober contemporary interior and strong attention to detail to unveil the house narrative.
Moreover, the ceiling lamps were torn down to expose the original house structure: steel beams and former composite slabs, both innovative at that time.
A dark, dilapidated, and low semi-basement initially intended for service facilities was wholly transformed to accommodate an apartment with interior patios and bright colours that light and warm the living spaces.
An important task to overcome was to make the building resilient to floods, which have long been part of Mexico City’s circumstances. The house is now equipped with underground rain collectors that work with an automated system to prevent basement flooding.
Without making alterations to the original structure, a new program was incorporated with only a few minor modifications of the house’s history.
