JA House

Aside from vindicating the very presence of the house, we imagined Casa JA from the beginning as a discreet and slight horizontal line that highlights the sky and the mountains in the background with the latest rays of the sun draining between them.

We had to keep the main façade timidly hidden from the eyes of those circulating the streets of the Santa Barbara glen. We wanted the house to be so intimate and silent that only suggested its presence, avoiding any presumption, exaggerated exhibition or the typical ostentation of the place where it is located. Its black stone interiors pretend to emphasize the cover and highlight that horizontal line on which the sun, the sky and the mountains would rest.

The magic sunsets perceived from its location were something important for us throughout the design process. The spaces wished to be influenced by the beauty of such light that does nothing but produce a particular enchantment.

The house is divided into three blocks placed on different levels connected by wide covered and uncovered stairs that make up a continuous and fluid space. The gardens, patios and squares organize the rest of the program, provide a certain introspective, domesticated and silent nature and fill the spaces with such intimacy and recollection that reminds us a bit of the prehispanic and colonial architecture of some towns in Michoacán.