This housing block in Mexico City, designed by locally based HGR Arquitectos, is arranged around a large circular courtyard where a Japanese guava tree grows.

The MX581 residential building is located in the city's southern San Jeronimo Aculco district, near to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Completed earlier this month, the housing block encompasses 12 units across four levels, with parking on the ground floor.

HGR Arquitectos gave the project a rectangular footprint to leave room on the L-shaped site for a garden, which serves as the access point and leads into the circular courtyard in the middle.

The yard is landscaped in a Japanese style, including benches for residents, grassy patches, a pool filled with gravel, and a large planter from where the feature tree grows. "At the centre of the circle a nine-metre-high Japanese guava tree was placed, allowing the view of all common areas of the [apartments] to be of this tree," said HGR Arquitectos in a project description.

Curved black balconies wrap around the outdoor space, with the residences set into the rectangular block behind – creating a porch-like space in front of every unit.

"The design of the circle creates four triangular shaped terraces, which are part of each of the individual apartments," added HGR Arquitectos, which previously completed a brick housing complex organised around a line of patios.

The typical apartment layout on the ground, first and sec...