Project: Mariana House
Architects LABarq
Location: Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico
Area: 7,642 sf
Photographs by: Alejandra Urquiza
Mariana House by LABarq
The Mariana House is a wonderful contemporary dwelling designed by LABarq. It is located in Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico and creates just over 7,500 square feet of luxurious living spaces in an L shaped layout. The design’s biggest selling point is its logical transition from public to private space and from interior to outdoor spaces.
Casa Mariana deals with a corner plot with strict design regulations, juggling between salvaging views and maintaining a sense of intimacy in an otherwise very open residential community. The result is an L Shape plan with two main corridors that organize the private and public spaces, joined at the stairway that connects both stories.
On the ground floor, the arrangement follows a logic of transition from public to private space, allowing them to be used independently while keeping their relationship and functional dependency from one another.
A sequence of sliding doors and pivoting glass partitions further allow spaces to adapt to different situations and activities and modify themselves accordingly. On the upper floor the program relation is much more straight forward, but still separating the master suite from the secondary bedrooms by a common intimate living space that overlooks the 2 stories sloped ceiling that covers the main living room.
The materials respond to the orientation, the two northern walls are freed of the rest of the house and are made of red colored fluted split-face concrete blocks, while the east and southern facades open up to the sun through a sequence of plastered volumes and deeply recessed windows. Lastly, the western facade is made of a glass curtain wall, protected by an aluminum screen, in order to control the solar incidence and provide privacy while maintaining the views to the Esplanade and the front garden.
