02 • ARCHITECTURE
Tlalpan’s Loma Residencial
A modern residential complex built on top of an iconic minimalist house with beautiful views to the fairway.
Overview
Mexican architect Francisco Artigas, known for his indisputable influence in Mexican’s Modernism, designed a magnificent 700 sqm house for the 53rd Mexican President Don Miguel Alemán Valdés back in 1967. Nearly 60 years later, the current homeowner preserves this architectural gem, despite how much its urban and social context have changed over the last decades.
The neighbourhood in which this house is located has grown from having 40 to over 700 residences, negatively impacting the way-of-living originally conceived for this minimalist residence. In an attempt to preserve Artiga’s legacy and remodel the house so that it better answers to its economical, urban, and social context, a new 7-unit apartment complex has been envisioned to solve the latent need for private dwelling.
Challenges
The existing structural axes must be respected and used as reference for the new distributions. This posed an important restriction, since not all rooms could be easily solved spatially.
Objectives
1. Preserve the legacy of famous architect Francisco Artigas by avoiding demolition 2. Solve the current need for dwelling and privacy based on the new site context 3. Reduce building costs and construction document requirements 4. Maximize income by subdividing the building lot into smaller, more-marketable fractions
Approach
Preserve the existing minimalist house and build one story on top of it using structural joints and respecting the structural axes. Sub-divide the building lot into four different terrains, turning it into a condominium consisting of 3 residences, 3 apartments, and 1 pent-house.
The original house was partitioned both horizontally and vertically following the main structural axes, allowing each unit to expand and strengthen the current foundations.
Only non-bearing walls are demolished, allowing the open spaces to be reconfigured and repurposed. New space distributions are achieved using modular design techniques.
A new steel structure is conceived, wrapping the existing house entirely while respecting the previous foundations and structural behaviour.
The new design separates private areas on the top floor, and keeps social-oriented spaces in the first basement. Access to the garden is made possible through a new mezzanine.
Floor Plans
Elevations
Facade Cuts
Results
As the Head Architect of the residential complex, I led both the architectural development and early sales strategy. Upon completion of the project blueprints and marketing plan, I partnered with two real estate agencies to market and sell the properties in their pre-construction phase. Together, we achieved the sale of the Pera, Royal, and Trillion residences within one year, totaling $1.2M USD in revenue. Four of the seven units are planned for simultaneous development in the upcoming year, with projected pre-sales of an additional $2.0M USD.
Learnings
• Conducted structural analysis in order to test load capacities and the viability of building on top of the existing concrete slab • Transformed the actual spatial distribution, repurposing each zone into new areas confined within the actual structural axes • Dealt with 100+ clients as a realtor and learned how to attend to their needs and desires using sales-psychology and general marketing principles
Next steps
• Coordinate the construction phases for the three residences simultaneously • Develop the apartment building project to its executive phase • Adapt the existing MEP & HVAC systems into the new project
Gallery
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