Mexican Labyrinth

Architectural Review, The, July, 2000 by Raymond Mendez

Planes of glass, water and concrete reinterpret the Hispanic tropical tradition.

Inflected by both the universal and the particular, Alberto Kalach is one of an emerging generation of Mexican architects who fuses the abstract language of Modernism with indigenous Mexican influences. But unlike Barragan or Legorreta, Kalach's is not an earthbound architecture of massive walls articulated by colour; instead he pursues a lighter language of layers and planes in raw, hard materials such as concrete, stone and glass. With its echoes of Schindler and Scarpa, Kalach's work is a distillation of the universal filtered and tempered by conditions in his native Mexico City.

A significant aspect of Kalach's career so far has been the provision of houses for private clients. For a young architect, such commissions offer an ideal opportunity to test and refine concepts at a modest yet eminently controllable scale. This new house for an entertainment entrepreneur and his young family represents an assured consolidation of thought and expression. The site lies around five miles from the city centre, near a golf course, in a neighbourhood of evident (but for Latin America unexceptional) contradictions between rich and poor. Overlooking the rear of the clubhouse and a neighbouring hacienda-style house, the context is uninspiring.

Kalach tactfully neutralizes these surroundings by creating a luminous internal labyrinth defined by floating wail planes, light-filled voids and reflecting pools of water. Characterized by spatial fluidity and interpenetration, the house has a rich formal complexity and intimacy. An austere palette of materials -- mainly in-situ concrete, but also travertine, glass, walnut and steel -- is deployed with great sensitivity and finesse. The effect is less monastically rigorous than say, Ando, but impressively controlled nonetheless. A series of stone sculptures by Mexican artist Jorge Yazpik, set ceremonially in each of the house's three pools, continues the dominant theme of elemental materiality.

The volumes are arranged in a vaguely cruciform plan, with wings radiating out from a central core. A long bar with a library at ground level and bedrooms above thrusts out towards the street. Its mutely inscrutable facade of bald concrete shields the house from the effects of the harsh south sun and deflects prying eyes. An elongated entrance hall leads past the library into the double-height void at the heart of the house. Enclosed by sheets of clear glass, rather like a museum display case, this modern version of a patio courtyard with its pool and stone sculpture constitutes the focus of the composition. Living and dining spaces are clustered to the east of the patio, overlooking and opening out on to a large garden, lushly planted with jasmine, fig trees and jacaranda. To the south, the axis of the entrance hall extends to connect with interlocking kitchen, dining and breakfast rooms. Above are sleeping quarters and a study, all loosely arranged around the central void which is bisected by an elegantly detailed steel and glass bridge.

Carefully placed to capture and reflect light, water softens and cools the interior in the immemorial Hispanic tradition. On the south street edge, a triangular pool overlooked by a sun deck separates the outside world from the private inner realm. A third pool runs along the west side, flanking the entrance. Here, water is held in a shallow steel tray supported by steel beams suspended between the house and an adjacent retaining wall. The thin pool slab forms a canopy over the entrance to a lower ground floor level housing garage and service spaces. Exquisitely poised in space, the pool is a tranquil, glassy mirror, reflecting a luxuriant green wall of bamboo sprouting above the retaining wall.

With its changing vistas and layered spaces, the labyrinthine plan generates a sense of mystery and introspection. Screens of slatted walnut cast stark geometric shadows through the tall, luminous spaces, and water scintillates against stark planes of concrete and glass. Through carefully choreographed handling of light and fastidious attention to detail, Kalach orchestrates an extraordinarily lyrical spatial and sensual experience.