Mexican architecture studio Inca Hernandez Arquitectura has renovated an old house in Tacuba with multiple artistic and artisanal elements in Mexico by giving a new life to the historic apartment. 

Named Mar Mediterraneo 34, the house is located in Tacuba, Mexico City which has a historical setting with an enormous cultural and architectural heritage protected in its magical neighborhoods. 

Tacuba is one of them, located northwest to the downtown, this neighborhood has undergone social and urban transformations that have lasted to this day and where vestiges forged at different times can be found.

As the architects highlight, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Tacuba became one of the wealthiest areas of the city with large country houses, which over time and different political changes were abandoned and many were collapsed. 

However, among these vestiges the house of Mar Mediterraneo 34 remained. The restored house has 3 levels and 7 apartments that adapt to different flexible spaces, such as loft, studio, familiar apartment and penthouse - which interact by views to the historical elements in the main patio and two additional courtyards of lesser proportion with a tree surrounded by a set of lattices that allow the entrance of natural light keeping an autochthonous essence.

"The goal of the intervention is to generate a legacy that encourages the transformation of Tacuba to enhance and rescue its heritage value, by taking advantage of spaces in a sustainable way to give life to the magical neighborhood," said the studio.

Built in 1910 through an eclectic French style belonging to the Porfiriato era, it currently holds historical value by the National Institute of Fine Arts and the National Institute of Anthropology and History. 

The project started with the idea of giving a new life to a house designed in two volumes, where the first incorporates the main facade while the second has a view to the main patio, although both were in advanced deterioration and the second volume was in ruins.

The studio aimed to respect to the historic legacy of the structure. Based on these characteristics, the restoration and intervention of the original elements of the era are implemented, where the spaces are regenerated with a new materiality, and the multiple artistic and artisanal elements are recovered from the main facade such as the carved quarry from the balconies and lintels, the iron railings, the large windows and the glass roof tiles, intending to rehabilitate the new urban image. 

The interior is reconstructed as a reinterpretation of the past through a contemporary perspective, where a volume is raised up framing the sky in the existing main patio and portrays the arrangement of the old portals as a sequence of light and shadow, this is how these openings rise intermittently from the ground floor in double height and become a solid element of introspective architecture.

The project intends to fusion what prevails and what is reborn through a linear connection between two eras, this connection is also reflected at the entrance by a volcanic stone baseboard which surrounds the entire ground floor and functions as the foundation to lift what has resurfaced.

Site plan

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Mezzanine floor plan

Cross-section 

Longitudinal section

Axonometric drawing 

Inca Hernandez, is an Architect graduated from the Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira (UNET) in Venezuela. He has worked independently in different real estate, housing and cultural development projects in his native country. 

In 2015 he moved to Mexico, to work with BAAQ', an emerging architecture firm, where he had the opportunity to work with world-renowned Architects such as Tadao Ando (Pritzker, 1995) and Alvaro Siza (Pritzker, 1992) in different projects in Oaxaca for Casa Wabi's foundation. Inca Hernández has also worked in new real estate developments and restoration projects in Mexico City. 

He has currently started with his own firm developing research, art direction and architecture projects in Mexico, Venezuela, Italy and Colombia.

Projects facts

Project name: Mar Mediterraneo 34

Location: Tacuba, Mexico City

Use: Housing

Architect: Inca Hernandez

Development: Top Project Multiplex / Efrain Hernandez.  

Area: 620 m2.

Interior design: Ana Ximena Garcia, Inca Hernandez, Raiz Mx, Adrian Gonzalez.

Collaborators: Gabriela Llovera Arciniegas, Luis Enrique Vargas.

Structural engineering: Javier Soria.

Year: 2020    

All images © Joao Morgado 

All drawings © Inca Hernandez Arquitectura

> via Inca Hernandez Arquitectura