Mexico City, Mexico

Casa Domus was just another model home in another Mexico City-area subdivision when an Italian furniture importer and her husband purchased it, and subsequently asked the developer to leave any outstanding interior work unfinished. In 2007 Garduño Arquitectos heavily reworked that interior into the antithesis of its characterless, white-on-white neighborhood.

Photo © Laura Cohen

Architect
Garduño Arquitectos

General contractor
Alen Construcciones, Enrique Alvarez

Sources
Rapsel (tub); Capo d’Opera (sinks); Parkemo (wood floor); Cia & Costa (chandelier, vanity lights); Dornbracht (lav tap); Ritmonio (tub spout, accessories)

No holds were barred on the project, explains Juan Antonio Garduño Tirado, AIA. On the 4,300-square-foot house’s second floor, for example, what was a main hallway is now the master bath; an additional bathroom was reclaimed from a walk-in closet, and a third expanded its original configuration. More important, these spaces reflect the personalities of the homeowners and their two 20-something children. The Italian manufacturer Capo d’Opera, maker of the Fleur sink in the daughter’s bathroom, covered its vanity and a corresponding shower-stall wall in a black-and-white floral supergraphic. The son’s bathroom is the height of bachelorhood, with sleek black finishes, expansive mirrored surfaces for preening, and a futuristic all-glass lavatory basin fed by a wall-mounted faucet.

Garduño says the master bath “was intended to set the mood of a quiet, peaceful place, but with a definite contemporary flair.” The design capitalized on the former hallway’s columns of windows to tame frayed nerves: Several windows were replaced by manually operable openings to let in soothing natural ventilation, and all were frosted to diffuse the abundant daylight and ensure privacy. This escapist space also sates the homeowners’ interests: For him, a flat-screen television hangs above a freestanding Lavasca tub, and for her, the room opens to a walk-in closet filled with a beloved, and extensive, collection of high fashion.