Mexican studios JSa and mta+v have teamed up to create a curving housing complex in Mexico City with three volumes wrapped around a central spiral staircase that leads to a rooftop garden.
Known as Pedre, the 42,725-square metre (459,888-square foot) multifamily housing building rises from a triangular lot and has 14 above-ground floors and four levels of below-grade parking.
JSa and mta+v have completed a curving residential tower in Mexico City
Completed in 2022, the design features free-flowing concrete plates separated by bands of glass.
"With Pedre we wanted to challenge the rationality of prismatic buildings. Instead of a box, we wanted the facade to unfold as an organically continuous 360-degree contour," JSa principal Benedikt Fahlbusch Dezeen. The designers sought to contrast the "rationality of prismatic buildings"
Organized around a central circular atrium ? which brings natural light deep into the floor plates and fosters interaction among residents ? the structure reaches out in three gently curving "lobes" along the street edge.
Formally, the lobes were designed to reference the lava folds that define the landscape of El Pedregal, while managing to double the building's perimeter when compared to a rectangular or L-shaped form.
Merging architectural aesthetics with structural integrity, the exterior is composed of exposed concrete and aluminium with sections of vertical glazing depressed in from the perimeter of the floor plate to...