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.