New York | Tijuana, MX
Located in a residential neighborhood composed by large single family houses in the city of Tijuana, we did an exercise of densification. Inserting a multifamily project that contains four units on a site intended for one single family home. The challenge was how to achieve this, without breaking the scale of the context, something that would blend in based on size, but break with the existing typologies of the surrounding sites.
On the long narrow site, we arranged the units in a linear distribution. Four townhouses built over two different structural grids. The first floor contains circulation and parking, there is a pedestrian entrance on one side and vehicular entrance on the other. Since we needed most of the level free for car circulation, we designed the vertical circulation nucleus as the structural elements that combined with beams, would carry the weight of the whole building. The second floor of each unit is the living space that contains living room, dining room and kitchen with a sliding glass door that opens to a wood deck that is cantilevered over the parking leve. The second floor of each townhouse contains three bedrooms. With a privileged view of the city, each unit is topped off by a tv room that opens up to a roof terrace.
Status: Built
Location: Tijuana, MX
Firm Role: architect, developer
Additional Credits: Project: T38 studio
Team: Alfonso Medina, Mauricio Kuri, Oscar González, Pablo Casals-Aguirre, Lucía Arroyo, Alina Castañeda, Sara Díaz, Alejandro Bustos.
Construction: Taller38 Project: 2010-2011
Construction: 2011-2012
Site surface: 550 m2
Built surface: 700 m2
Location: México, Tijuana, Baja California. Photographs: Pablo Casals-Aguirre