m²: 6150
Location: Cholula, Mexico
Type: Comission
Team: Angel Rivero, Emelio Barjau, Adrian Aguilar, Laura Fontaine, Diego Eumir, Paul Chavez, Mitl Gaxiola & Jaime Sol
Year: 2012

The 41 room student housing complex features a central patio surrounded by a linear three-level, four sided ring of housing that opens up onto it. Each housing cell in this ring includes all the amenities necessary for a compact residence: accommodations for sleeping, studying, and a basic kitchen and bathroom. The ground floor includes commercial rentable area, a cafeteria, and a private lounge. From the outside this mass appears closed and private, clad in a single, uninterrupted skin of perforated sleet plate. However, this private block lifts up one of its corners to allow direct access to the patio at ground level. The entire building must be understood as a cloister, with its focus on privacy and interior life, but is also opened up by this gesture, creating a building that is at once closed but welcoming; private but lively.