House in Xalapa

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

HOUSE IN XALAPA

Lopez Gonzalez Studio

ARCHITECTS
Lopez Gonzalez Studio

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Juan Hernández Del Carmen

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION TEAM
José Pedro López González, Jesús Arturo López González, Ricardo Alejandro Sánchez Hernández, Iván Benítez Posadas

LEAD ARCHITECT
José Pedro López González

MODEL
Taller Cuatro Cuartos

PHOTOGRAPHS
César Béjar Studio, Rodrigo Chapa

AREA
528 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Xalapa, Mexico

CATEGORY
Houses

Envisioned for a growing family, the house proposes a form of dwelling organized around a continuous dialogue with the landscape in which it is located.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

The dark exterior grants it a solid stature, while simultaneously evoking the possibility of a home carved in complement this suggestion, like the sectioning of the house’s volumes that hints at the form of a crack, or the windows that appear sporadically, yet with a balanced rhythm, in different parts of the wall.

Furthermore, the tour inside proposes a game of changing lights and shadows, with paths that open and close, tighten and widen, and flow into open spaces that secure both fresh air and privacy.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

Terraces and windows allow for an evolving conversation with the ample vegetation that surrounds the grounds. In the house’s ecosystem, plants become protagonists, establishing a symbiotic relationship similar to the one mutually agreed upon between the moss or the amate tree with the rock.

Inside, the differently sized and shaped windows become openings that frame natural elements, invite the viewer to contemplate the green color, and shed light on all living spaces.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

At the same time, these windows confuse the threshold that separates the interior and exterior, generating an expanding sensation.

Outside, once that the viewer overcomes the plants that surround and hide the building like a lost treasure trove at the bottom of a trunk, windows offer fleeting glimpses of life, if only a bunch of suggestions of what happens there every day.

At night, the black house disappears into the darkness. What remains are small gaps of light revealing a series of quotidian pictures.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

If seen from the outside, the walls’ rocky tone and the foliage’s green stand out, inside it is wood which acquires an important character. It shows up in beams, in bookshelves, in closets, or in the furniture where the home’s day-to-day will develop: the chair, the table, the bed, the door.

Besides warming up the place, the use of wood establishes yet another conversation with the landscape. Pine tree suggests once more that it is the land that should offer the key to a durable dwelling anchored in the territory.

Its lightened tone joins the exterior’s black, the vegetation’s green, and the frames’ red as the most visible colors.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

The discrete presence of the last of them, the red, offers a striking contrast not unlike that of a flower, in an attempt to find a balanced color palette capable of melting with its surroundings.

The place proposes an idea of dwelling founded upon the characteristics, conditions, and resources of the territory.

Similarly, architecture is thought of here in such a way that it can allow for time to do its work over the constructed area: plants will grow, walls will become humid and mossy, the volume will identify more and more with its landscape.

House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio

It lays down a philosophy of construction in which the work does not conclude (it only begins) at the point in which the house begins to live.


House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio
House in Xalapa
© César Béjar Studio


House in Xalapa
Leval 1
House in Xalapa
Leval 2
House in Xalapa
Leval 01


House in Xalapa
East Elevation 
House in Xalapa
West Elevation 
House in Xalapa
North Elevation 
House in Xalapa
South Elevation 
House in Xalapa
Ground Floor 
House in Xalapa
Site Plan 


House in Xalapa
Cross Section 
House in Xalapa
Longitudinal Section 
House in Xalapa
Isometry 


House in Xalapa
© Rodrigo Chapa
House in Xalapa
© Rodrigo Chapa
House in Xalapa
© Rodrigo Chapa