Espacio Kaab House by Matia Di Frenna Muller

Espacio Kaab House by Matia Di Frenna Muller is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Silver A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Competition Category.

SilverArchitecture· 2022

Espacio Kaab House

by Matia Di Frenna Muller

Client: Di Frenna Arquitectos

Silver A' Design Award Winner in Architecture Category

22,386

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #136969

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Espacio Kaab House

Espacio Kaab is a house designed for a young couple on a sloping site beside a river in Nogueras, Colima, Mexico. The design combines a Japanese influence with local Mexican building traditions. Stone, earth and wood are used together with steel and concrete, so that the house blends visually with the surrounding landscape. Durable stone, concrete and Chukum stucco were selected for outdoor areas, while wood and wicker were placed in protected spaces. The same natural stone floor continues inside and outside, softening the boundary between the house and its setting.

The Recognition

About the Silver A' Design Award

Espacio Kaab House is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Espacio Kaab House is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Espacio Kaab House is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.

Image Analysis

Color Temperature: Slightly WarmSymmetry: AsymmetricBackground: No Clear Backdrop

Where to Get It

Nature-Integrated Residential Architecture

We design and construct exceptional homes that blur boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. Our award-winning architecture integrates natural materials like stone, wood and earth with modern elements, creating harmonious residences that connect inhabitants with their environment.

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Espacio Kaab is a house project for a young couple, where the fundamental requirement was the interaction with the environment and the use of materials visually and conceptually integrated with the natural context, such as stone and earth, giving a modern touch with steel and concrete. The difficult topography of the land gave the opportunity to do a strong and unique character in the area, is a project with a lot of interesting spaces, beautiful views and environments that blend with the nature.
Dimensions & Packaging: Gross square footage: 4,316 S.F.
Tags: rammedearth, concrete, stone, wood, vegetation, landscape
Production Technology: For the selection of materials, several criteria were used, one of the most important was that the project should integrate visually with the area, therefore priority was given to materials with a natural tendency, such as wood, stone and earth.
Trying to minimize maintenance and future restorations, we selected the most durable materials for outdoor spaces, such as stone, concrete and "Chukum" stucco, while the more delicate materials such as wood and wicker were placed in protected areas.
Design Challenge: The land of the project is next to a river surrounded by nature and had a complicated topography, it is immersed in an area of houses and historical buildings such as the Cathedral, the Rangel museum and ecological park.
These characteristics challenges us to design a harmonious and functional project, but also gave us the opportunity to take advantage of the site and develop a project interesting spaces, beautiful views and environments.
Research: It was decided to keep the design team small, giving very personalized attention to the clients throughout the design process. A design supervisor and a lead designer spent a great deal of time analyzing the owners and their spatial needs.
Multiple visits were made to the site and its surroundings to analyze the cultural and natural context to be rescued, and once a meticulous topographic survey was completed, work continued on the project, visiting the site and talking with the clients on an alternating basis to receive feedback throughout the design process.
Inspiration: The architectural style to be achieved was a mixture of Japanese style that integrated elements and techniques of Mexican architecture, mainly of the local type, which can be observed in Nogueras and other neighboring towns of our building.
Project Duration: The project started in January 2 2020 in Nogueras, Colima, México and finished in December 15, 2021.
Operation Flow: The main concept of the build was to accomplish spaces where the boundaries between inside and outside blur: where the ranges and colors of the environment integrate into the shades of the building, and where the inhabitants can walk barefoot across the considered choice of the same natural stone floor without distinguishing whether they’ve come out or into the house and delight in the phenomenology that this materiality awakens in all of their senses.
Patents: Copyrights belong to Di Frenna Arquitectos, 2022.
Team Members: Founder and CEO: Architect Matia Di Frenna Müller
Design Lead: Architect Mariana de la Mora Padilla
Construction manager: Civil engineer Juan Gerardo Guardado Ávila
Image Credits: Imagine #1, Imagine #2, Imagine #3, Imagine #4, Imagine #5/ Photographer Lorena Darquea, 2021