Cumbres House

For the Cumbres House in Mexico City, ASP Arquitectura Sergio Portillo used the removed soil to produce compressed earth blocks, thus creating a rooted sense of belonging.

The project by ASP Arquitectura Sergio Portillo is located in a housing development in Mexico City. Due to a reduced separation between the houses, which affects the views and how the orientations are leveraged, a large patio was created. It generates a dialogue between indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing light to enter while providing the structure with visual and thermostatic self-sufficiency.

The shape of the footprint and the regulated limits led Portillo to a solution involving soil excavation and removal. Mexican architect used it to produce compressed earth blocks, providing a real solution that reduce the environmental footprint, and create a rooted sense of belonging in which the color scheme is defined by the site itself, and not by the architect.

From the exterior, the project appears to be a grouping of extruded blocks that allude to the impenetrability and the massiveness of the material, while the interior highlights the openness and lightness of these elements in an open floor plan. Throughout the project, the earth functions as the project’s unifying element.