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Charcoal-gray cladding panels establish the dominant chromatic presence of Fernando Valdez's Best in Black Multi Unit Housing, a striking vertical residential tower rendered in atmospheric twilight…

Best in Black Multi Unit Housing by Fernando Valdez is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Golden A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Competition Category.


GoldArchitecture· 2020

Best in Black Multi Unit Housing

by Fernando Valdez

Client: Valdez Arquitectos

Golden A' Design Award Winner in Architecture Category

48,278

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #98392

Colors

The Design

About Best in Black Multi Unit Housing

Best in Black is a project that aims to create a new kind of residential building. The interior design of the apartments represents industrial design meeting Mexican architecture, the materials selected like wood, concrete and marble give the space a warm look and the palate of colors white and black represent the idea of the facade of the interior design. The four facades are clearly inspired in a random placement of the Tetris game shapes forming the walls and windows of the building, creating lighted atmospheres that generate comfort for the user.

The Recognition

About the Golden A' Design Award

Best in Black Multi Unit Housing is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Best in Black Multi Unit Housing is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Best in Black Multi Unit Housing creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.

Where to Get It

Contemporary Architecture Services

We design innovative architectural spaces that blend modern aesthetics with thoughtful functionality. Our award-winning approach transforms your vision into extraordinary buildings through creative material exploration and user-centered design.

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties
The 19th-floor residential complex Best in Black located in the city of Puebla, Mexico, is a project that aims to create a new kind of residential building. Designing each floor different gave us an opportunity to play with the structure and distribution of the interior spaces, creating atmospheres that generate comfort for the user.
Dimensions & Packaging
Althought each floor and facade had to be different, we generated a singular size for the glass and marble that would be multiplied to create forms following the function of the structure. We managed to fit those singular pieces to generate interesting and clean perspectives
Tags
Architecture, Building, Housing, Tetris, Materials, Facade, Interior, Color
Production Technology
The interior design of the apartments reflects industrial design meeting Mexican architecture, the materials selected like wood, concrete and marble give the space a warm look and through the palate of colors white and black represents the idea of the facade of the interior design.
Design Challenge
This project was an opportunity to blend the private and public, there are nine different kinds of apartments mixed with the structure and the public spaces, this would make the user feel unique. Playing this tetris game as our original idea, we managed to have a balance of comfort and light in our main facade and the living areas.
Research
We researched the typical vertical structures in the city and found that glass was the most common material because views to the volcano and the mountains were a priority, we tried to make a balance between transparency and opacity.
Inspiration
The facade comes from an idea, the brick game. This old version had the same principals of the nowadays popular game but in a old black and gray version. The four facades are clearly inspired in a random placement of the Tetris game shapes forming the walls and windows of the building, meanwhile the dark tones in the materials is based on the abscene of color in that particular old version that the young future architect treasured for years.
Project Duration
The project design started in November 2018 and finished in April 2019 in Puebla, Mexico.
Operation Flow
While selecting the materials, we thought on contrasts, light and darkness, roughness and clearness. As a consequence, the stucture had to be mixed with the natural materials, the columns and beams divide the space depending on its use creating different heights and circulations.
Image Credits
Image #1: Night View, Image #2: Lobby, Image #3: Circulations, Image #4: Amenities, Image #5: Living room

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