- 2026 Gold Prize
- From Residential Architecture
Casa Mavra
Project Description
The proposal is developed on two angular volumes, which open toward the landscape, executed in black concrete. They rest and unfold forcefully upon the earth, seeking to establish a new order in the place on which we are situated.
As a fundamental premise, we decided to break through by means of a continuous wall that rises from lower to higher, accompanied by the sound of water, which descends along the stairways, defining the access from the street and initiating the journey toward the heart of the house, which orders and vestibules the spaces and the uses, and ultimately transforms into the roofs of the house in its different directions, generating the imposing character of MAVRA (Black in Greek).
The horizontal volume on the west side contains the social and common areas, articulated through connections at all its corners between patios overflowing with vegetation that are incorporated into the interior spaces, which interact throughout their entire horizontal extension with the landscape that contains them; on its east side, the private bedrooms of the family are developed, where their layout is organized through nodes of interconnection and long corridors for circulation and contemplation, interrupted by vertical and horizontal entries of sun and rain in its roofs and walls, generating diverse sensations and atmospheres throughout the day and night.
We propose and develop projects based on collective processes, generating architectural, urban, and social experiences and solutions; drawing on emotion and intuition, structured through sustainable regeneration strategies as a support system to reactivate and resolve situations that promote places for gathering, exchange, and events.
We establish connections with the context we occupy; we take a position through an understanding of cultural needs, expressing our concern for the everyday and the immediate; we are driven by the outcome and the impact it produces within the community, the city, and the landscape.
We appropriate the essence of the place and what it evokes; we delve into what is important to resolve through different design strategies and processes, which evolve as they are continuously redefined and reinvented, while achieving balance in the outcome of each project in which we participate.
Our methodology is developed through an intensive research process; we approach what could happen through different systems of production and exploration, experimenting in collaboration with professionals who join the project to identify and generate the technical channels between the situation and the proposal.
Alberto Calleja was born in Caracas. He graduated with honors in 1998 from the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the Central University of Venezuela. He currently runs his practice based in Mexico City under the name TAC Taller Alberto Calleja.
