Page 103 - AIT0723_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Ludwig Godefroy, MX-Mexiko-Stadt
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Schnitt • Section
Bauherr • Client Privat
Standort • Location La Marquesa/MX-Mexico-Stadt
Nutzfläche • Floor space 150 m 2
Fotos • Photos Rory Gardiner, GB-London
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 158
HOUSE ALFÉREZ
IN MEXICO-CITY
Located outside the pulsating metropolis of Mexico
City, the French-Mexican architect Ludwig Godefroy
has designed a quiet refuge right in the midst of pine
forests. The need for protective architecture in a soli-
tary location manifests itself in a concrete sculpture
that is largely enclosed on the ground floor but yet
manages to benefit from daylight in a sophisticated
way.
A fter having completed his studies of architecture in Paris, Ludwig
Godefroy gained experience in renowned international offices –
including Enric Miralles EMBT in Barcelona, OMA in Rotterdam and
with Tatiana Bilbao in Mexico City. Since 2011, the architect, who was
born in Normandy and lives in Mexico City, has been realizing remar-
kable projects of his own, ranging from restaurants and clubs to houses
for solvent private clients. Extremely sculptural, powerful, archaic – this
is the best way to describe his work. As to materials, his architecture
and interior design manifest themselves in concrete, volcanic stone,
basalt, copper and wood. In July last year, Godefroy completed the Casa
Alférez in La Marquesa, just outside Mexico City. The house is based on
the idea of a house in the woods: isolated, far away from civilization,
a cube made of exposed concrete, on the one hand, a romantic refuge,
on the other, a brutalist fortress offering compelling protection. Hence
the building material concrete. Indeed, the sculptural cube seems
impregnable, like a monolithic meteorite smashed into the woods. The
ground floor is, according to Godefroy, “largely blind”. In other words,
there are only narrow window slits where the living area high as the
house with open fireplace and the bedrooms are located. Nevertheless,
the rooms benefit from daylight that penetrates through light cannons
and large windows located at a safe height. Godefroy has embedded
the sofa in the floor. This way, it does not look like furniture, but is
part of the architecture. The roof terrace in the treetops of the pine
trees serves as a second living level. Here is the morning zone, on the
ground floor the evening zone. Between the very bottom and the very
top (clearly visible in the section), different levels with an open kitchen,
dining- and working areas extend upwards in the split level, all con-
nected by the expansive sculpture of the staircase. The floor area of the
house is only nine by nine metres in order to keep the ecological foot-
print low despite the use of concrete as a building material. Nest and
cave, high and low, introverted and with a view, built into the ground in
the north, floating in the south – an exciting house of contrasts.
AIT 7/8.2023 • 103