CEFR HOUSE

[The phenomenological house is] a house [...] with secret corners and long corridors, made up of an incomprehensible multiplicity of rooms whose organization [would] be similar to that of a labyrinthine space (Iñaki Ávalos).

There is a difference between what we can see when we observe the plan of a labyrinth and the feeling of being in one. In the first one, one can perceive a logic, a sequence and even a diagrammatic sense of the route; in the second, the experience of the presence of the occult and the imminent sense of play to which anyone who has entered a daedalus predominates.

The labyrinth can also be conceived as a way to learn complexity. Mexico City, for example, overflows daily inward and outward, building itself up without apparent logic, growing and juxtaposing itself non-stop. In a context like this, we chose to reinterpret complexity and orient it towards the acts of walking, getting lost and stopping to contemplate space. But in the particular case of Casa CEFR, the program follows that of urban housing intended for rest, in which tranquility is the feeling most desired, which is why we sought to accentuate privacy and self-absorption.

The house is condensed like a labyrinth around the courtyard, through the intersection of five volumes that create different spaces, in which juxtapositions give rise to all the atmospheres of the program. Thus, the house grows around the tree and accumulates a series of spatial experiences that are enhanced by the light that enters from different angles and that screens the white concrete walls.