CASA ESTUDIO

Located in the middle of the historic center of Chihuahua, Casa Estudio proves that spaces, just like memory, are constantly rewritten. Form, function, matter, everything changes all the time. And it is indeed mutability the force with which abandonment and ruination can be faced.
Over a house cataloged as historical monument, in an urban environment that maintains the morphology and style of the old mining towns of the north of the country, Void Studio’s project was developed over the 60m2 surface and delimited by the exhaustive reviews of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
It was under the guise of preserving the mining style architectural and constructive characteristics that the studio found the solution in mapping out a three story building that would uncoil giving continuity not only to spaces but also to the transition from the old building to the new.
Since the structural analysis revealed the loading capacity of the mud walls –60 cm thick– would hold the second level and the terrace if they were built with light materials, the architects solved the upper structure using steel, drywall and durock facade.
Preserving the original volumetries of the house, external wall’s thickness was solved, inside, designing and installing fixed furniture. A closet, a desk, and a bookshelf, all placed around the TV room, create a cozy and multifunctional space where you are invited to lay down and watch a movie or relax while having a good read.
CAsa Estudio remains like a witness of time, forming part of a historical center in which constant resurgence, prevalence of movement over the static, the rewrite, even involuntary, of the previous trace, is noticed.