Project: Godoy House
Architects: Hernandez Silva Arquitectos
Location: Zapopan, Mexico
Area: 7,556 sf
Photographs by: Carlos Diaz Corona
The Godoy House is a stunning contemporary home in Zapopan, a city in the Jalisco state of Mexico. The design courtesy goes to Hernandez Silva Arquitectos, a studio whose work we’ve actually featured some time ago with our article on the Casa Cuatro in Zapopan.
The Godoy House is made up of two volumes with plenty of open spaces and a large amount of glazed surfaces that maximize the exposure to daylight and natural ventilation.
The house is located in a private neighborhood outside the city, the land is flat and located in a corner, with neighbors to the south and east side, the west contains a large line of trees that separates the house from the street and takes a turn into the north where both entrances lie: one pedestrian and another one for cars. From the corner and the front, you can observe two floating bodies, the one on the left is a large box covered in gray stone that levitates over the street opening a gap where the cars are stored, the other one is light and transparent, bigger and higher, which indicates the pedestrian entrance; it is a volume of windows pointing north and sheltered by a white steel lattice to the west, obeying the relationship with the sun, as this orientation is extremely hard in the city.
The transparent volume at the entrances expands by the side of the trees, the lattice covers its front face and is secured to a vertical wall at the back, which eventually blocks the heat from the west, in the back, two walls raise and become evident by bending horizontally and jutting out to create a big projection of 36ft. (11mts.) over the garden and pool, supporting a second floor where the master bedroom is located so that it gets a complete open view to the garden which is surrounded by woodland.
The entrance platform is elevated due to the semi-basement of the house, which generated slopes opening the space in several directions. The inside is completely open and almost every wall is aligned to the same direction; this is quite evident from the courtyard entrance, which is a well-lighted double height gap, where the main circulations converge, a vertical one, and a translucent glass bridge that communicates both ends of the first floor.
The structure of the house is made of steel, it was built during a situation where this material was at a low price, allowing to build an almost floating house.
At the back, the house opens with a long and folding window system, integrating the garden with the interior, and transforming social areas into a great terrace totally integrated to the garden and pool which allows living the cool and privileged weather of Guadalajara. The dining room looks out above the terrace and communicates above the garden with the kitchen and studio, the two staircases go from the basement to the second floor, one leads to the services and the other one weaves the social and private spaces of the house.
The front part of every cover is flat, but slightly inclined on the back due to construction regulations, covered with yellow glazed ceramic; the walls are mostly smooth, floors are in marble and wood, the carpentry is all in a dark color, using white steel on many elements of the house.
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