Project architect: Mabel Zertuche Garza
Collaborators: Gustavo Alvarado Cepeda
M2: 380
Constructions: Constructora Omnia SA de CV
Photography: German Siller 

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Celosia House experiments with how to design one structure that can work for one or two households.
The client required a large three bedroom house to rent, but after studying the specific neighborhood and location we counseled against it: houses that type in the area were being extremely undervalued and consequently rented beneath the market value.
The initial proposition of designing two identical small duplexes was also not convenient if they wanted to sell them in the future because of the legislation in plot divisions. The final intention of the project was to design two smaller houses that could be rented independently but that could work as a single house if it is to be sold without making large adaptation works.

To achieve this, the plot is divided longitudinally in three strips, the south one is left as a garden, while the center holds a one-floor volume and the northern one a two stories volume, that way they are both warmed from the winter sun exposure and have access to a large side garden or terrace. A frontal double heighted volume holds the social areas of the houses and is cut by a party wall (drywall) that can be removed if it is to be sold, thus joining the two houses in one move and into a single domestic dynamic.
The main facade faces west, compromising the placement of necessary large windows, so we placed a detached brise-soleil brick wall that screens the front volume from the afternoon sun and holds a small inner garden that also works as an in-between space that shelters and gives privacy without being entirely closed.