Image courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal

Placed on the back part of a terrain, a volume is partially buried leaving the visual depth of the existing backyard free, becoming an extension of it. This volume accommodates two working areas. A service module that contains a bathroom, a storage room and a cleaning area divides them. A manual skylight ventilates the module. A sequence of longitudinal skylights brings zenith natural light to the interior of the volume. The interior space is related on its both ends with two yards. One is used as the main access to the workshop with a stair made out of steel and paving stone. The other is placed aside a meeting room in the back part of the project providing light and crossed ventilation.

Image courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal

Image courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal

One side of the project is furnished, and the other one holds the models of the projects developed in the workshop. So when walking through the space one is flanked all the time with these projects. These models bases were originally made with MDF wood. Now all the space is spread with this material. Doors, furniture and worktables are made of this material, generating a unitary language among the objects and the workshop products.

The perimeter structure consists on a retaining wall of reinforced concrete with "U" shape. It holds an intern system of concrete block walls and a metallic cover. Buried double walls in the longitudinal side conform the drain system for rainwater. It also drains the gain water of the adjacent terrain. The water is collected in tanks placed under the patios and is used to irrigate the existing vegetation.

Image courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal

The nature of the materials was left exposed; witch allows the clear observation of the constructive system from inside the building. The ironwork was handmade, so are the handles and the locks of the metallic frames of the glass doors. These are placed over the ironwork fixed with structural adhesive tape and structural silicone from the outside. This avoids the exposure of the iron, reducing its maintenance. The access to the roof is made by a metallic sailor stair witch make possible the maintenance of the climate machines placed inside a recycled wooden box.

Some old trees from the nearby landscape invade the space of the workshop. The transparent skylights and windows make a great connection with them. The disposition achieves the shade of the trees and the neighbor's wall reducing the use of air conditioner. The architecture of the project is synthetic, reductive on its elements, economic and honest in the materials. But at the same time precise and elegant on its use and collocation.

Drawing courtesy S-AR

Model courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal

+ Project facts

Project: Taller S-AR (S-AR workshop)
Architects: S-AR stación-ARquitectura | www.s-ar.mx / www.stacion-arquitectura.com
Location: Monterrey, Mexico
Project Team: César Guerrero, Ana Cecilia Garza, María Sevilla, Carlos Flores.
Program: Architecture Workshop
Client: S-AR
Project Area: 100 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Construction: 2010-2011
Completion Date: 2011
Photographs: Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal
Technical drawing: S-AR stación-ARquitectura
3D Drawings / Rendering: S-AR stación-ARquitectura
Model: S-AR stación-ARquitectura
Structural Engineering: Jesús González Sáenz
Construction Site Supervisors: S-AR stación-ARquitectura + Gonzalo Taméz
Building Contractor: Gonzalo Taméz + Enrique López
Materials: Concrete, Steel and Glass
Constructive System: Concrete block walls, reinforced concrete walls, structure of steel beams, slab made by metallic deck and concrete with losacero system
Enclosure: Steel screens and clear tempered glass of 9 and 6 mm
Finishings: Apparent concrete block, apparent reinforced concrete, MDF wooden doors, plaster finish, polished concrete floor and gravel pavements.

+ All images, model and drawings courtesy S-AR | Photo by Ana Cecilia Garza Villarreal