Abstract views, and organic relationships with the forest. Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier
12/02/2023.
[Ocoyoacac] Mexico
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
On Wednesday the Architectural League of New York (ALNY) named eight winners in its annual 2023 Emerging Voices Award competition, and Mexico City-based architecture practice LANZA Atelier was among the winners of this edition. The initiative began in 1982 as a means to showcase and celebrate the work of young North American architects and designers on an international stage.
To celebrate this good news, we recovered an interesting house completed in 2019 by LANZA Atelier, located about 40 minutes from downtown Mexico City and built with artisanal cream-coloured brick, it sits right on the edge of a thick pine forest that protects it from the noise from the nearby road.
To celebrate this good news, we recovered an interesting house completed in 2019 by LANZA Atelier, located about 40 minutes from downtown Mexico City and built with artisanal cream-coloured brick, it sits right on the edge of a thick pine forest that protects it from the noise from the nearby road.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Ground floor plan. Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier.
Floor plans. Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier.
Sections. Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier.
Sketch. Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier.
LANZA Atelier, led by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, designed their first residential project located away from the urban agglomerations of the big capital of Mexico, the property is a quiet home for a young family: the husband, an engineer who specializes in the construction of tunnels, the wife, and their two daughters.
Casa Jajalpa pays attention to natural context creating an undulating and organic wall that adapts to the positions of pre-existing trees and that sometimes operates as a corridor and sometimes as a lattice that delimits an area within nature. The wall also connects two buildings, a one-story family home and a smaller two-story guest house on the outskirts of the city of Ocoyoacac, Mexico.
The house is built with artisanal brick exposed for walls and concrete slabs curved to let the morning light into all spaces of the house. The design creates abstract relationships with the landscape, the light, and outside spaces, "fragments of the landscape through the patios, windows and doors so that nature is always present."
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
Project description by LANZA Atelier
Forest House is located in a pine forest near Mexico City. The initial intention was to domesticate a piece of that forest to make it part of the house. An organic wall that adapts to the positions of pre-existing trees and that sometimes operates as a corridor and sometimes as a lattice delimits an area within nature. The rooms of the house, a one-storey volume for the family and a two stories volume for guests, are related to this wall, either joining or being crossed by it. Thus, they turn towards the interior forest, leaving outside the noise of the neighbouring road and the presence of other neighbours.
Jajalpa House by LANZA Atelier. Photograph by Dane Alonso.
The house is built with artisanal brick, which remains exposed in most cases. The concrete slabs of the main volume are curved to let the morning light into all the rooms of the house. A relationship is created with abstract fragments of the landscape through the patios, windows and doors so that nature is always present.
More information
Architects
LANZA Atelier. Lead architects.- Isabel Abascal, Alessandro Arienzo.
Project team
Alejandro Márquez, Celina Bonadeo, Jéssica Hernández.
Area
600 m².
Dates
Completion.- 2019.
Location
Ocoyoacac, Estado de México, Mexico.
Manufacturers
Chair by Patricia Urquiola.- Andreu World.
Kareem Rashid chairs.- Bo Concept.
Dining table.- Bontempi.
Couch.- Capdell.
Furniture designed and produced by.- Lanza Atelier.
Kareem Rashid chairs.- Bo Concept.
Dining table.- Bontempi.
Couch.- Capdell.
Furniture designed and produced by.- Lanza Atelier.
Photography
Isabel Abascal, Alessandro Arienzo. Atelier LANZA
LANZA Atelier is an architecture studio based in Mexico City and founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, in 2015. LANZA has been nominated for the 2016 Ibero-American Architecture Biennial Award and the Mies Crown Hall Award for Emerging Architects, IIT Chicago 2016. The study also received an Honorable Mention in the Competition for the El Eco Museum Pavilion 2016 and is one of the winners of the Architectural League Prize 2017. LANZA’s first solo show is taking place at SFMOMA from March until July 29, 2018.
Isabel Martínez Abascal graduated as an architect from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She studied at the Technische Universität in Berlin and at the Vastu Shilpa Foundation in Ahmedabad (India). She collaborated with the studios SANAA (Tokyo), Aranguren and Gallegos (Madrid), Anupama Kundoo (Berlin), and Pedro Mendes da Rocha (Sao Paulo).
She has been a design studio professor for six years in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Escola da Cidade, in Sao Paulo. She has participated as faculty at the 24th International Workshop of Cartagena, at the Ibero-American Biennial in Medellin 2010, at the International Seminar of Curitiba 2012, and at the Rio Olympics Workshop of the California College of the Arts 2012. She participated in the curating of the 10th Biennial Of Architecture of São Paulo, 2013 and curated the exhibition “13” for the inaugural cycle of the La Conservera Museum, Murcia 2014, and the exhibition “Visionary Instruments” by the artist Almudena Lobera for the ECCO Museum, Cadiz 2015.
From July 2015 until August 2017, she was executive director of the LIGA, Space for Architecture platform in Mexico City, dedicated to the exhibition, dissemination, and discussion of Latin American architecture.
Alessandro Arienzo is an architect who graduated with honors from the Universidad Iberoamericana. In 2012 he designed Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura’s inaugural exhibition “Happiness is a hot (and cold) sponge,” with Rodrigo Escandón. He collaborated with Taller de Arquitectura Rocha + Carrillo, Taller Tornel, and Frida Escobedo, with whom he developed the conceptual project for the Mexico Pavilion at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London Design Festival 2015, the renovation of the Fondo de Cultura Octavio Paz bookshop 2013 and the Public Stage Pavilion for the Lisbon Triennial, 2013. Eager to explore the different possibilities of architecture, he develops research and publishing projects.
He was a recipient of the FONCA Young Creators Grant Program in 2017.
Isabel Martínez Abascal graduated as an architect from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She studied at the Technische Universität in Berlin and at the Vastu Shilpa Foundation in Ahmedabad (India). She collaborated with the studios SANAA (Tokyo), Aranguren and Gallegos (Madrid), Anupama Kundoo (Berlin), and Pedro Mendes da Rocha (Sao Paulo).
She has been a design studio professor for six years in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Escola da Cidade, in Sao Paulo. She has participated as faculty at the 24th International Workshop of Cartagena, at the Ibero-American Biennial in Medellin 2010, at the International Seminar of Curitiba 2012, and at the Rio Olympics Workshop of the California College of the Arts 2012. She participated in the curating of the 10th Biennial Of Architecture of São Paulo, 2013 and curated the exhibition “13” for the inaugural cycle of the La Conservera Museum, Murcia 2014, and the exhibition “Visionary Instruments” by the artist Almudena Lobera for the ECCO Museum, Cadiz 2015.
From July 2015 until August 2017, she was executive director of the LIGA, Space for Architecture platform in Mexico City, dedicated to the exhibition, dissemination, and discussion of Latin American architecture.
Alessandro Arienzo is an architect who graduated with honors from the Universidad Iberoamericana. In 2012 he designed Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura’s inaugural exhibition “Happiness is a hot (and cold) sponge,” with Rodrigo Escandón. He collaborated with Taller de Arquitectura Rocha + Carrillo, Taller Tornel, and Frida Escobedo, with whom he developed the conceptual project for the Mexico Pavilion at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London Design Festival 2015, the renovation of the Fondo de Cultura Octavio Paz bookshop 2013 and the Public Stage Pavilion for the Lisbon Triennial, 2013. Eager to explore the different possibilities of architecture, he develops research and publishing projects.
He was a recipient of the FONCA Young Creators Grant Program in 2017.
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