Mexico City

Site Size: 1,873 square feet

Project Size: 5,813 square feet

Program: Located in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City, PAUL CREMOUX Studio designed a three-story home that has storage, parking, plenty of space for entertaining guests, and a stunning living wall at its core.

Solution: Casa CorManca (a portmanteau of the owners’ names) is a three-story, poured-in-place concrete structure, cubiform in shape, and clad in black slate on the exterior and wood on the interior.

Since it occupies a tight site, 39 by 42 feet in size, the architect carved out spaces in section for double-height rooms, patios, and terraces. The first floor encloses a double-height parking space and patio next to the entrance from the street. Arrayed in an L-shape formation around the patio/parking space is a double-height living/dining room and a kitchen/service wing. On the second level, an open-air terrace dominates, connected to a covered terrace overlooking the double-height spaces of the first floor. The only room on this level is a small studio edging the south wall. The top floor is reserved for the family’s bedrooms and a den above the second floor’s open terrace.

In addition to this interlocking weave of vertical spaces, a lushly verdant, living wall creates a vertical garden on the second floor. Its more than 4,000 plants, the architects say, absorb nearly 600 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year.

People

Owner:
Mariana Cordera and Fabrice Salamanca.

Architect:
PAUL CREMOUX studio
Cerrada de Trini 2703-4 Colonia San Jerónimo Lídice.
Delegación Magdalena Contreras.
Mexico City, Mexico
info@paulcremoux.com

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Architect of record:
Design architect, renders, presentations, plans, and drawings.  From SD to CD and construction architectural supervision: Paul Cremoux.

Assistant for construction documentation drawings production:
Anna Giribets.

Engineer(s):
Register architect for structural engineering calculations: Ricardo Camacho.
Register engineer for MEP calculations. José Antonio Lino.

Consultant(s): Register engineer for sustainable equipment. José Antonio Lino.

General contractor:
Factor Eficiencia (Fermín Espinosa)

Photographer(s): Paul Cremoux Wanderstok; Hector Armando Herrera

CAD system, project management, or other software used:
BIM. Revit Architecture, Adobe Photoshop

 

Products

Structural system
Concrete and steel structure, walls of Mexican red brick, plus sheet rock.

Exterior cladding
Masonry: “Marmoles Puente” black slate.

Metal/glass curtain wall: custom-made aluminum.

Precast concrete: concrete blocks and reinforced concrete slabs for structural floors.

Moisture barrier: Owens Corning residential insulation.

Other cladding unique to this project: StonePeak Ceramics

Roofing
Built-up roofing: concrete blocks and reinforced concrete slabs

Glazing
Glass: 6mm – 8mm guardian Mexico

Hardware
Pulls: Casa Ikeda

Security devices: ADT

Interior finishes
Acoustical ceilings: Sheet rock USG.

Suspension grid: USG.

Paints and stains: Sherwin-Williams

Wall coverings: Formica bamboo laminated

Solid surfacing: Caesarstone Quartz (kitchen)

Special surfacing: “Lecheriado finish” on exterior white walls (Mexican mix of cement paint, water and sand).

Floor and wall tile (cite where used): StonePeak recyclable content

Resilient flooring: Epoxy resin

Carpet: Chilewich

Lighting
Interior ambient lighting: all LED.

Downlights: all LED.

Task lighting: all LED.

Exterior: all LED.

Dimming System or other lighting controls: all LED.

Plumbing

  • Rain water reuse for bathrooms and vertical garden
  • Automatic drip irrigation system
  • Absorption pit for aquifer health