Articles by Cristobal Rojas

Baisha Old town in Yunnan province is a small village part of Lijiang well known for its Jade Dragon Snow Mountain range. It is still the most legit old town in Lijiang. The typical wood and mud brick houses welcome the visitor to discover the ancient life of the village. 

This Community Cultural Center exhibits the archeological and textile wealth of Teotitlán del Valle, a village in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The principal volume, facing the village square, houses the Museum which will host the collections and activities of the present Teotitlán Museum of History. In formal terms, the project is governed by the aesthetics of the immediate context, which determine the height, color, and materials used. The secondary volume contains the Municipal Library and a service zone. The area occupied by both buildings on the site represents just 18% of the whole surface area, leaving a large public space of plaza and gardens. This helps to improve the pedestrian routes passing across the site and connecting with the main square, inserting the new public spaces created by the Cultural Center into the circuit of existing plazas that define the urban structure of the village.

The project consists in a new tennis hall building with three new covered tennis courts and and new club house including changing rooms, fitness room, office, restaurant and bar with wide covered terrace. 

This project is located in the town of Maitencillo within the region of Valparaiso. Initial development of this holiday house began by recognising the need for height in such a way that would permit visibility of the landscape, thus allowing better lighting, exposure and ventilation.

The house is located close to Brasília´s city centre. The previous owner of the house had planned to build a bigger one with 350sqm and two stories high. Instead, due to funding problems, he decided to build all the foundations of the house and only use it partially in a 150sqm, one story construction. He built the extra floor plan and covered it with a ceramic tile roof. Moreover, he sold the house without never going ahead with the expansion plan.

Incorporating the site’s dynamic landscape into the daily life of its residents, the Bracketed Space House is designed as a meaningfully-framed procession through the property with nuanced natural lighting throughout. A continuous and jogging retaining wall from outside to inside embeds the structure below natural grade at the front with flush transitions at its rear facade. All indoor spaces open up to a courtyard which terraces down to the tree canopy, creating a readily visible and occupiable transitional space between man-made and nature.

The ground is observed as an extension of the lake due to its proximity and the little difference of height with it. For this reason, the architectural response leads to the dock as referent, which lies on the water transversely at only the needed points. That simple idea of ​​subtly posing and go looking for the lake generates the project strategy.

Masseria Moroseta: a white stone farmhouse standing proudly on the ridge with views across the olive trees to the sea.