A single-family home features earth-toned colored platte and smooth surfaces within intertwined volumes in a semi-urban context from Querétaro, Mexico.

Named Casa Tejocote, the 650-square-metre, designed by Mexican architecture firm González Muchow Arquitectura, responds its own context through earthy, soft materials and simple volumetric configurations. 

Garden view

Drawn on a simple layout, simple composition elements reinterpret the vernacular architecture of the region, aiming to integrate with the semi-desert landscape that surrounds it.

The two-storey house is comprised of four main square volumes in which each program elements are arranged within these volumes, including a living room, dining room, kitchen, and service spaces on the ground floor.

Private spaces, such as three bedrooms and a family room, are arranged on the second floor.

Family room

The studio conceived the volumetry to provide privacy as much as possible. 

"Since by regulations of the housing estate it is not allowed to build fences, the house's scheme acts as a wall that surrounds and protects the living spaces," said the studio. 

Four solid volumes creates a boundary around a large central garden, while they are linked through a bridge of lighter character. 

Living room façade

According to the studio, these four modules are intervened meticulously so that each volume can get a subtle light entrances. 

Thanks to this, the house also provides views that frame the landscape or integrate the interior with the exterior spaces.

Main entrance

Interiors are much more elegant since users are able to feel soft transitions in between spaces. 

Designed with semi-open character, interior spaces provide the possibility of opening onto an interior patio or garden, under the same idea of inhabiting the house inward with some privacy, without losing contact with the exterior. 

Hallway

"The central garden plays a fundamental role in the habitability of the house since the modules seek to open up towards it, allowing the family to carry out activities in coexistence with nature," the studio added.

"The wild and endemic vegetation of the region surrounds the house and integrates the architecture with the surrounding landscape."

Family room

The preferred materials and color palette become the protagonist of design. The architects preferred to use the warmth and simplicity in both the interior and exterior spaces so that this constant atmosphere can be maintained in the house. 

To achieve this, the distinctive red-color of pigmented concrete with its tepetate color shades both inside and outside gives a more welcoming character to the spaces it surrounds, matching natural light and the landscape. 

Living room

"The use of discreet materials causes light and space itself to be the protagonists of the house," said the studio.

Elementary details such as solid wood in furniture and ironwork; as well as brick floors and pasta mosaics, complement this sensation of serenity that the spaces transmit.

Guest bathroom

The structure is built from reinforced concrete elements that shape the main volumes. The thick walls are raised in layers poured every 80 centimeters. 

This modulation rules the height and modulation of interior spaces, openings, and various details throughout the house. The orthogonal rigidity of the volumes is softened by curved details that cause a more sensitive relationship towards the spatial geometry.

View from living room

Main entrance

Main entrance

Main entrance

Main façade. Image © Miguel González

Staircase

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

Outdoors tub

Side façade. Image © Miguel González

Circular window

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Section

Section

Section

Project facts

Project name: Casa Tejocote

Architects: González Muchow Arquitectura

Year: 2021

Location: Querétaro, Mexico

Size: 650 m2

Top image © Ariadna Polo.

All images © Ariadna Polo unless otherwise stated. 

All drawings © González Muchow Arquitectura.

> via González Muchow Arquitectura

house pigmented conrete residential