56 DIGS.NET
| 7.15.2022
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P R O F I L E | N AT U R A L H O U S E
ESIGNED AS A refuge in metro Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico,
Natura House is, as its name implies (and despite its
urban environment), at one with nature. Recently
completed and vibrantly white-facaded, the residence
is the culmination of a 12-year crusade by Cotaparedes
Arquitectos to design single-family homes with a heightened
sense of security in Mexico. That these clean-angled construc-
tions are strenuously minimalist make them more interesting
and dynamic than one expects to find in a gated community.
Robustly walled, but not walled off from the world, Natura House
is a bold rethink of privacy. It's also the physical manifestation
of a tenet to which Cotaparedes Arquitectos is tied: "We believe
that privacy is not a luxury but a necessity of human beings,"
says architect Abraham Cota Paredes. In his mind, the project
speaks to the broader evolution by humanity to "discover who
we are and what our place in the world is." And, crucially, what
that place should be. "People need a place where they can be
away from others to think clearly" and "develop that individuality
that separates us from other living beings."
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