This home has everything: a hanging egg chair, a porch swing, a hammock, a suspended fireplace, outdoor living rooms, a living green wall, an interior courtyard with a tree, outdoor sphere lights, modern furniture, rooftop terraces, and a panoramic view – the only thing missing is a pool. You get the impression that the designers read Trendir daily.
Casa Jacarandas in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico was designed by Hernandez Silva Arquitectos to take advantage of the warm climate by creating zones that are located both inside and outside of the home at the same time. The 3-storey vertical garden is the main feature of the indoor-outdoor connectivity, starting just behind the open carport and continuing past creating a feature wall for the outdoor corridor in the center of the home. Even the driveway leading to the carport is filled with greenery adding a further connection of the landscape to the architecture.
The carport is located next to the main entrance, which is accessed via a short flight of concrete stairs. The greenery within the driveway creates a symmetrical balance with the grassed lawn on the other side of the entry stairs.
The front of the home presents a private facade, which is in direct contrast to the 3 storeys of glazings on the back.
To create interest on the private facade, the architects designed a geometric block with voids that create shadows against the white walls. Layered into this white minimalist face is a warm and welcoming clear finished wood entry.
The ceiling of the carport also features clear finished wood within its steel framework.
The natural wood ceiling, stonewall and vertical garden create a stunning almost park like composition within the carport.
As evening approaches the vertical garden comes alive under the glow of the carefully placed uplighting.
The stairs behind the carport and overlooking the vertical garden continue to all 3 levels of the home.
The stairwell is not the only location within the home that enjoys a vertical garden. The kitchen is a visceral treat with its vertical plantings and marble island.
The dining and living zones have only one small plant within the volume, but the floor to ceiling glazings allow the landscape beyond to permeate the space.
The social zone opens up to a terrace via the bifolding glass wall and while the terrace is outdoors, an overhang finished in the same steel frame and clear finished wood that the architects used in the carport shelters it.
The decking on the terrace is solid wood posts laid over a concrete pad and in each corner a cubic light fixture is ready to set the mood as daylight shifts nightlight.
Each of the 3 storeys has walls of glass that open to terraces overlooking the backyard.
and what a backyard it is! A manicured lawn overlooking the city below and the ocean beyond with large evergreens in the forefront that create both depth and perspective – and if that isn’t enough, there is also those fun white spheres just to whimsy it up a bit.
While the back of the home presents a formal garden, the side has a more relaxed approach to the outdoors. Here, a hammock is suspended beneath a tree canopy creating a shady place to take a nap.
The hammock is located beside the outdoor lounge and dining area which is on a concrete pad next to the terrace.
The hammock is not the only suspended seat. A suspended wicker egg chair on the 2nd storey terrace swings peacefully from its ceiling.
And a porch swing is suspended just outside the master suite.
The master suite is a bump out within its private terrace and both walls of glazings slide back and out of the way to create a bedroom that is as much a part of the outdoors as it is part of the inside. Adding to this duality of indoor-outdoor moments are two specimen trees positioned on a platform with there own ceiling void to grow through.
A figurative sculpture between the two trees is lit up at night by uplighting at the base of each tree.
Porch swing, sculpture among trees, suspended fireplace and a panoramic view of both the city and the ocean, what more could a person want for their bedroom?
Hernandez Silva Arquitectos
Photography by Mito Covarrubias
