SI31 | Boué Arquitectos

This architecture revitalization project by Boue Arquitectos is located in the heart of Mexico City´s historic center, right on San Ildefonso Street. It is a four-level building that has been intervened with the purpose of reactivating its ground floor, rehabilitating exhaustively its interiors, rescuing its façade and integrating —with its use and the floating population that it will attract— new dynamics to its immediate context, which is characterized by its high commercial and tourist activity, an extraordinary cultural offer and an unprecedented historical relevance.

The project, by reappearing and resuming its housing vocation, seeks to contribute to the revaluation of its urban landscape and the strategic initiatives that have been taking place in it, through pedestrianization, mobility and public space recovery projects. Its privileged location, filled to the brim with an endless number of buildings belonging to different architectonic styles adds to the national monument archeological sites and “must see” tourist sites that recount the identity of our country over time. The gastronomic offer, museums, bookstores and the atmosphere of a unique historical center frames the experience of inhabiting it to feel the pulse of a great city.

However, it is the duality between trade and tourism the most challenging condition for this sector, since a large part of the architectural wealth is threatened by being underutilized as commercial safe spaces. Gradually this logic has just recently begun to reverse and this is part of the commitment of this project that has returned its ground floor to the street activity of San Ildefonso by enabling two new commercial spaces and three housing levels with different types of apartments. Each unit has the essential sparing no expense in well-being: one or two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living and dining room.

Under the main idea of ​​optimizing the space without making any comfort sacrifices, the project has a main lobby on the ground floor, a central courtyard with a fountain that goes through all the building levels following the vertical circulation core (lift and main stairs).

In this way all the apartments are connected and isolated from the outside noise, making the fountain the sound element settles in all the interior spaces. The project is crowned on the top by an open terrace and an amenity center with gym, services, grill, a main hall and the roofgarden with a privileged view of Mexico City, this is without doubt the most attractive co-habitation space of the project.