Published in the German Architecture Annual 2022, edited by Deutsches Architekturmuseum and Y. Förster, C. Gräwe and P. C. Schmal, by DOM Publishers.
Government assistance for home ownership in rural areas may initially sound strange to some Europeans. Yet rapid urbanisation in Mexico is pushing the infrastructure of numerous cities to reach their capacity limits. Infonavit (Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores; ‘National Workers‘ Housing Fund Institute’), the national institute that offers publicly funded building loans and housing for low-income earners, decided to break new ground in 2016 to counteract the rural exodus. Previously, in the 2000s, the state fund failed badly when it built huge housing estates in monotonous grid systems all over the country, far away from the cities, which then remained vacant. Only after this were architects brought in to develop new approaches.
The German-Mexican architectural duo Zeller & Moye was invited to develop a single-family house type for the region around the small town of Coquimatlán in the state of Colima in 2016. No particular plot of land or architectural context was specified; rather, the task was to design a typology suitable for mass production on a low budget. However, the climate conditions of the location, where it is hot and humid all year round, had to be considered.
The way the people in Colima use indoor and outdoor spaces had a decisive influence on the design. Señoras sit together on the shady verandas in front of the houses, families stand around the garden cooking stove where coffee and salsa simmer, and the apartment door is always open, so that air can circulate inside. The living space is both inside and outside and Christoph Zeller and Ingrid Moye declared this to be the guiding theme of their design.
The architects have not reinvented anything; rather they have looked to tried-and-tested practices and considered them in a new way. Like in many other places in Mexico, the residential buildings in Colima are self builds in rural areas. The architects produced the idea to create a modular architecture that would see the future homeowners arrange and adapt the building volumes themselves and largely build them by hand. It is a highly flexible modular system that can respond to any property and its context in terms of shape and orientation. This logical model for growth and adaptation is implemented in simple geometries and local building materials. Building owners also benefit from various elements for the outdoor area, including seating, a stove, and a water basin.
The well-thought-out concept was ready for use in 2017. However, the clock was ticking in Mexico for state projects after the election campaign. The next presidential elections were scheduled for 2018, and it was vital to implement the residential typologies that were developed into prototypes as quickly as possible. Without further ado, the strategy was changed. Instead of building test houses in each region, the decision was made to build the design by Zeller & Moye as well as another 31 designs from national and international architects in a Lego-like arrangement next to one another on a test site in the village of Apan, about 90 kilometres northeast of Mexico City.
For this building exhibition, Zeller & Moye selected a configuration of volumes of their modular system called Casa Hilo, which demonstrates its enormous adaptability. The modules of the monofunctional rooms only touch at their corners, thereby creating a flexible system. In the basic configuration, four slightly rotated structures interlock with the garden without creating a clear front or rear of the house. The 90-square-metre house consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The house does not have any corridors thanks to the climate in Colima. Daily life moves freely between closed interiors, covered verandas, and the green inner courtyards, which function as an access area as well as an extended living room and selfcatering garden.
The reinforced concrete frames of the modules are earthquake-resistant and allow for additional storeys to be added. They are filled with locally handcrafted adobe bricks, which regulate the indoor climate by absorbing moisture and releasing heat. Bamboo lattice windows and doors stretched on wooden frames promote constant air circulation while also serving as privacy screens. When open, they provide shade to outdoor spaces. The house is affordable and easy to build thanks to the use of readily available materials such as concrete, adobe, and bamboo. The raw charm of the building materials, the climate and spatial atmospheres, and the radical separation of the individual rooms – connected only by a hilo (‘thread’) – give the house its distinctive character.
The 32 houses in Apan were completed in early 2019, shortly after the new president took office. Designed as a living laboratory, the area was never used and is in ruins after only two years.
For the architects, this has been a valuable learning experience and they come away with a higher level of resilience that is essential for creating publicly funded architecture in Mexico.
Published in the German Architecture Annual 2022, edited by Deutsches Architekturmuseum and Y. Förster, C. Gräwe and P. C. Schmal, by DOM Publishers.
