Drive 45 minutes south of Guadalajara, Mexico, and you’ll hit the town of Cajititlán. Looking out to the San Juan Cosalá mountain range from the shore of the town’s lagoon, it’d be easy to picture yourself building a home there.
But if you abide by the phrase “do as the locals do,” you’ll forego the house in favor of a terrace.
That’s right, picturesque locale architects Jaime Copado and Francisco Sarabia designed the ultimate pad to watch the sun set over the mountains — complete with two bathrooms and approximately zero bedrooms.
Designed for friends of theirs, according to ArchDaily, “the main request was to create a diaphanous space.” The translucent element of that request is achieved by using glass to enclose three sides of the main building, which also includes a fully furnished kitchen, living/dining room and central fireplace.
But apart from standard amenities, the main artistic reasoning that informed the architecture was to “respond to this ambience in the clearest and simplest way possible, with only two slabs and two volumes [creating] all the spaces.”
One volume is the carbonized wood which contains the main building. The ceiling above and floor below are both concrete slabs. The other volume is the stone wall that separates the terrace from the parking area and street.
Basically, it’s a luxurious patio without the accompanying mansion.
The property also includes a grill and storage space set in the stone wall, as well as an open courtyard. What ArchDaily fails to note is whether the family that owns the property lives nearby or if this is a destination — because while the “diaphanous” space is well and good during the day, after the sun slips behind the mountains no one wants to be stuck sleeping in a tiny glass box.
Photos: César Béjar
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