In Pachuca, Mexico, operadora fits an entire single-family house inside a 7.5-metre cube, House Within a Cube I, its programme stacked over three levels and coated in a fine cement render.
The house is one of a pair. Both stand in Pachuca, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, projects numbered 016 and 027, and both set out to answer one and the same brief, each resolving it through a different spatial layout, and each held inside a 7.5-metre cube. The studio files the project under the heading "Fictional Vernacular" and sums it up in a line of its own: "A house within a cube."
Structurally, the house stands on load-bearing brick walls, which carry the prefabricated concrete floor slabs above. The exterior walls, by contrast, are given a fine cement render, and that single finish is what gives both buildings their monolithic, abstract presence.
Inside, the 120 square metres develop across three levels. The ground floor holds the common areas and the kitchen; the second is given over to the bedrooms and bathrooms; the third opens onto a rooftop terrace set alongside the service spaces. Subtle level changes run through the interior from floor to floor, and these shifts are what expand the perceived scale of what is, in plan, a compact house.
The work is a private residence, designed and built across 2016 to 2017. Founded in 2014 and led by Edgar Rodriguez, operadora is a practice that works between Mexico City and Syracuse, New York; Rodriguez is the partner in charge here, with Alexis Ávila and José Juan Garay on the project team. The office also holds a special mention in the 2023 Erich Mendelsohn Award, a prize for building in brick, awarded for its House in Singuilucan.
