Casa Gálvez by Christian Mauricio Villanueva Gálvez
Casa Gálvez sits in León, Mexico, where residential blocks meet light industry and a surprising band of trees. Designed by Christian Mauricio Villanueva Gálvez, the house turns toward that green edge with measured restraint and a clear sequence. A compact tower for private rooms pairs with a generous social core, each reading the site’s breezes and sun to keep interiors calm without fuss.
Shade spills across a concrete threshold as the flamboyant tree leans into view. A circular oculus pulls daylight down, drawing the eye upward before the house opens.
Set in a dense district of León, the house by Christian Mauricio Villanueva Gálvez positions daily life around air, shade, and trees. The scheme leans on a central patio and calibrated openings that temper heat and invite cross ventilation, turning a hard urban edge into a soft interior landscape.
A contemporary zaguán forms the first pause in the sequence. Its vertical proportions, exposed concrete, and that round opening gather light and shadow, marking the moment where street grit meets quiet. One step later, the room grows to double height and the old logic of a troje is recast for today, bringing collective life to the fore.
Approach And Threshold
The flamboyant tree acts as guide and gatekeeper. Under its canopy, the entry reads as a covered outdoor room that cools the body and slows the pace. The oculus sketches the tree’s silhouette across concrete, turning a structural move into a daily sundial, and cues the pivot from public to private without drama.
Suspended Troje
Beyond the entry, a double-height volume holds a floating wooden element. On the lower level, kitchen and dining gather where height and cross views keep conversation connected. Above, a TV room and study perch within the same tall air, a compact bridge between levels that preserves openness while tightening acoustics for work or rest (doors tuck away when not needed).
Patio As Climate
At the center, the patio does the quiet work. Walls temper glare and bounce soft light inward, while high and low openings set up steady airflow through the day. Shade slides along the floor as the sun moves, and tree canopies complete the interior view with living texture, so cooling is earned by orientation rather than machinery.
Volumes And Edges
The plan condenses bedrooms and service rooms into a compact, tower-like volume. Patios wrap this stack, letting each room open or close depending on breeze, sun, and privacy needs. Curved lines meet an earthy-textured base, softening the joint between ground and wall — a subtle hinge between the terrain’s organic drift and the project’s clearer geometry.
Light, Shade, Privacy
Three bodies structure the whole: the entry scaled to the tree, the open social heart, and the more modulated private wing. Each finds its climate within a few moves rather than many gadgets. The social core gathers height, the tower finds quiet, and the patio binds them with air, shade, and protected sightlines across foliage.
Evening returns the house to its calm. Air slips through the patio, leaves shift, and concrete cools underfoot. What reads opaque from the street becomes porous inside, a measured daily rhythm tuned to trees, light, and the leonine sun.
Photography courtesy of Christian Mauricio Villanueva Gálvez
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