Mexico City Custom Home Explores Relationship With Sun

La Palma residence was built in 2011 and is located in Mexico City, Mexico. The contemporary style custom home was designed by architect Miguel Angel Aragones and is functionally focused around the home’s correspondance with the sun. 

cabbagerose:

la palma residence/miguel angel aragonés

via: afflante

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Aragones on La Palma: “Mexico is a land watched over by the Sun. Why not take advantage, then, of this legacy and make it a protagonist, an accomplice of architectural space? Why not let its powerful presence dwell in our interiors? Why not use sunlight to generate sensations, atmospheres? The Sun is to the architect what the compass is to the navigator; it is both the starting point and guiding principle behind all projects.

When viewing a property, the first thing you need to know is where [the sun] comes up and where it goes down; where you want its light to enter in the summertime and where during the winter. The Sun has to be captured, manipulated, seduced: its light stored. Not scattered, but softened.

This ability—the art of containing light—transforms the architect into a translator, an alchemist of sorts. As in navigation, latitude is the framework behind architecture.

In Mexico City, for example, homes are warmer towards the south: there is a continuous, powerful light that lasts while the sun is up. Western light, on the other hand, has a different color and duration.

Beyond a doubt, latitude is what colors the world. One of its consequences, climate, is a factor that generates customs with cultural aspects, cosmogonies. Light is a constant.”  (via homedsgn.com)

As an “alpha” global city, Mexico City is one of the most important financial and cultural centers in North America. It is located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico. 

View more stunning photos of La Palma residence. 

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