SF872 | Agraz Arquitectos S.C.

Text by Ana Guerrerosantos

Located in the historic center of the city, SF872 house was built originally in the year 1959. The challenge for it first remodelation was in 1996, not changing the original project just evolving it to the new owners needs and wit a new plastic image.

The solution comes from the reutilization of the house spaces with a new personality: painted in white inside and outside, offering a new image, clean and bright that contrasts with the environment.

The original patio cover was replaced by a crystal ceiling that produced a new luminosity which allows a clear spacial lecture; at the same time it was built an interior patio where the smokestack came the principal axis directioning the special sequence and the individual enclosures.

The patio interior-exterior game allows enjoying the astethic secuence of the light along the different day hours in the different year stations.

There were removed different elements which complicated the spacial lectura, the furniture was designed for the Project with the idea of mixing architecture and design in one concept that could offer a second chance since 40 years ago to this house.

Ten years after the told intervention, the firm faces a new challenge: transform the house in offices. It’s established to respect the original concept and to protect the house as it did bringing service to the family.

What before were bedrooms became privates, the distributor and the living room as a workshop, the dining room in a meeting chamber and the kitchen in a wide private; the other areas of service were turned into a small kitchen, dining room and workshop. With all of this the original construction resists the new requirements.

New electricity, telephone, internet, LAN and air conditioning connections were installed without affecting the original structure; the bathrooms are now fully renewed. A Woodstock was installed in the double altitude ceiling with a wire that sails all along this space.

The books, the models and a few number of sculptures arrived to accent the special personality. The silence between the walls along the years offers now an unsurpassable working place, demonstrating that three generations can coexist in a same place over a long time lapse; long for the men, short for the architecture.         

The final product is a strange mix of old and new, it’s hard to distinguish where does a project start and ends. The change of gender seems to fit well to the property: the house smile’s again to the cameras, but this time, the owners are the one’s receiving a second chance after 50 years.

DATASHEET

Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco

Authors:

Project 1959: Ricardo Agraz Sáinz

Remodelation 1996: AGRAZ ARQUITECTOS SC. Ricardo Agraz with Ricardo Agraz Sáinz.

Remodelation 2006: AGRAZ ARQUITECTOS SC. Ricardo Agraz

Collaborators 2006:

Beatriz Ramírez

Alberto Tacher

Sara Tamez

General contractor:

1959: Ricardo Agraz Sáinz

Remodelation:

1996-2006: Salvador Aguirre

Woodwork:

Esteban Gutiérrez

Aluminum: Ventalum

Lights: Construlita. Sergio Talancón

Bathrooms: Bathaus. Ramsés Galindo

Paint: Alejandro Pérez

Marble: Rafael Ceja

Photography: Mito Covarrubias

Site Area: 148 m2

Construction Area: 259 m2