Casa L&J

Alvaro Moragrega, a renowned Guadalajara-based architect, is proud to unveil Casa L&J, a residential project adjacent to a golf course in Zapopan, Mexico. Seeking balance between inspirational views and client privacy, the architect designed an L-shaped scheme, with the residence’s main volume, encased in steel and glass, serving as a barrier between the private areas of the residence and the adjacent golf course. The volume, featuring a pitched roof with flat black tiles, was designed in the image of a ‘shotgun shack’, or an elongated distribution of spaces progressing from public to private.

At one end of the volume, the main entrance opens into a spacious living room featuring a fireplace, piano, and dining area. A wooden enclosure houses a bar and storage area, dually serving to deflect views from the garden area. Adjacent to the dining area, a rammed earth volume, or tapia, frames a pantry, laundry room, and guest bathroom, dividing the main living room from the kitchen and family room. A custom-built structure houses part of the kitchen, as well as a bookcase with TV, and a small stove, thus blocking views from the golf course and reorienting them to the garden and pool areas.

At the opposite end of the volume, adjacent to the family room, a double-height art studio connects to its own patio workstation on one side, and to a hallway connecting the home’s bedroom wing on the other side. The bedroom wing is constructed entirely with rammed earth and rests 70cm below the exterior, providing garden and pool views from each bedroom. The walls are composed of a lateral rhythm of rammed earth columns on one side, and wooden walls and doors on the other, dividing the volumes that house the bathrooms and dressing rooms.

Technical sheet

Project name: Casa L&J

Architect: Alvaro Moragrega / arquitecto

Location: Zapopan, México

Plot: 1,890 m2

Project Area: 740 m2

Year: 2018

Design Team: Carlos Ruiz Palomino, Emanuel Goñi, Karen Camacho, María José Galindo, Arthur Dalloni; Structural Design: Cero Motion – Juan Jesús Aguirre; General Contractor: Gruval

Renderings: Artisan Render

About Alvaro Moragrega

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Alvaro Moragrega began studying architecture at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, and participated in an exchange program with the Universidad Iberoamericana de México. He obtained a degree in Architecture from UCLA, followed by a Master’s Degree of Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, where he received a scholarship to attend the Master de La Gran Escala: La Arquitectura de los Nuevos Entornos program under the tutelage of Eduard Bru.

After completing a Doctorate of Architectural Projects at the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Alvaro Moragrega collaborated on numerous projects with Tonet Sunyer in Barcelona. He co-founded Hipogeo in Guadalajara in 2000 and taught at ITESO University from 2002-2004. In 2007, he founded Alvaro Moragrega / arquitecto, and has since been selected twice as a forerunner for the Obras Cemex award. He also received an honorable mention at “Urban Intervention: Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space” in Seattle, as well as in the Town Square of Medina del Campo competition in Spain.