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This project consists of rehabilitating and extending a segment of a late 18th-century house in Real de Catorce, Mexico. The conditions around this commission pose various challenges, including the poor structural state of the preexisting structure, the plot’s limited space resulting from the original property’s subdivision, and the restricted access of heavy machinery to the site.

In response, the proposed design treats the new interventions as separate modules that slide in between the two existing party walls. The design deliberately contrasts with the untouched existing structures to distinguish between the old and new at both an aesthetic and a structural level.

These simple concrete structures act as shelves upon which the programs of the house stack on top of each other, eliminating any transversal subdivisions of the plot and providing a fluid spatial definition between interior and exterior spaces. Sliding glass doors, operable windows, and an exterior curtain in all south-facing levels furnish the frame, allowing for the ability to modulate the negotiation between interiority and exteriority.

This project proposes to engage with the existing with minimal intervention. All existing surfaces will be preserved as found and maintained in a perpetual state of decay, on to which the new structures will join 200 years out of phase. The distinction mentioned above between the new and the old is only temporary; with time, the insertions will blend into the existing, merging into a single ruin.