Location: Monterrico, Santa Rosa, Guatemala Architects: Alejandro Paz – Paz Arquitectura Collaborators: Paz Arquitectura Team Project year: 2012
The first Atypical building in the area is designed to provoke a healthy inertia in the real estate development of the sector, using design tools that manage to fulfill the quality of life aspirations of the current and future neighbors of the sector of the area. This goal will be achieved using as a starting point the intentions of the developer group, as well as the parameters established by the Municipality of Guatemala that seek to generate a cordial coexistence and develop the concept of neighborhood in an eminent movement of real estate development that will fill empty spaces in the local market and generate important moments of change in the face of the city.
The building achieves these objectives by seeking efficient ways to work with spaces in terms of ambiance and materiality, as well as questioning the traditional functionality of a residential building to improve the behavior of the inhabitants.
Thus, for example, the first level will be sought to stop functioning as a common parking lot and the space can be perceived as an urban space, decorated with architectural elements that break with the traditional scheme of a parking lot, and eliminating the concept of a “lobby” to enter the building. This street/parking lot can eventually be connected to future developments on adjacent land.
There will be two types of apartments to serve two different markets. An apartment that will take advantage of double heights and that has two rooms, to accommodate users looking for a more social or family lifestyle. And one-room apartments, seeking to serve people looking for privacy and a simpler lifestyle.
All apartments have cross ventilation and views, seeking to have a pleasant and healthy environment for the human being.
Additionally, a common space will be created on the roof, which will have two social rooms, one more private and one more open, as well as common laundry areas.
The aim is for the building to have a responsible environmental awareness, and, apart from complying with the requirements of having a “green” building, the concept of green roofs will be used to provide common garden spaces for users. Each apartment also has large balconies and individual green areas.
The materials to be used evoke an honest sense of architecture, and seek to strip the architecture bare with the purpose of housing users in spaces with a principle of transparency that can spread to human behavior in their daily lives. The management of these details has been proven in other cases to make the developer’s investment costs more efficient.
