Casa Eréndira

Eréndira House is a project that was developed for two women: Mother and Daughter. Lovers of Mexican culture, natural materials, vegetation, warmth, and the characteristic craftsmanship of the towns in the state of Michoacán; they wanted a house that had some of these elements in its essence and materiality. 

Open gardens to place a vegetable garden, vegetation inside, the warmth provided by natural materials, light and shadow that would bring mysticism to the everyday life of living in their own home. In addition, they required a space like a study-library to hold their documentary and work collection. 

A house where the "luxury" is the space itself, the light and the shadow; the natural vegetation of the site and the surrounding context, Eréndira House does not seek to stand out within the site, nor to disturb, it aims to be a part of, to blend in with it. Natural materials and gardens with natural vegetation are the premise that gives life to this project. Something essential in this house is to generate a place of tranquility, freedom, and harmony. 

Located in a popular neighborhood on a median lot with 10m frontage and 25m depth, the design of the house is developed as follows: it is modulated into three central panels of 10m wide by 5m long arranged transversely along the land, which comprise the built space and are delimited by a front segment and another posterior to the first block provided in the same way. 

On the ground floor, the first module: entrance, master bedroom, and a bathroom, a second module: double-height living room, garden, staircase, and circulation hallway, the third module: kitchen, dining room, service area, and garden. On the upper floor, the first module: two bedrooms and a bathroom, a second module: void, staircase, and circulation hallway, the third module: the study-library and a void. 

The front and rear space is composed of: 10m x 5m at the front for parking/access and 10m x 5m at the back for a garden. Eréndira House seeks that, from the entrance to the house, the experience of going through it is the most important thing, that the concept of an exterior garden as a visual finish prevails in the person who takes their journey, delving into the program. It takes elements from the architecture of Luis Barragán's studio house. On the outside, a rather quiet facade blends in with its context but is revealed by the strength of its volumetry.

Pepe Ramírez