Page 46 - Designing Ways 247

ON THE
TERRACE

Detail
Photo credit: Dane Alonso

The Hill in Front of the Glen

Morelia, Mexico

he inspiration behind this project
is derived from listening carefully
Tto the subtle murmurs and
whispers of environments like this, as well
as the client’s search for protection and
shelter.
How can one feel protected? What can
be done when one feels vulnerable? This
question was accompanied by an image,
or perhaps a memory: a frightened child
covering himself with a light bed sheet as
he peeks out to make sure he can see what
is going on around him.
Pulling a bed sheet over ourselves is an
elemental act that alludes to the most basic
part of the self; a bed sheet hides, protects,
wraps, and creates a space beneath it that
is so safe and intimate as to keep away any
spirit, ghost, or demon that may be in the
surrounds of the room.
At the same time, this project generates
a continuity in the beautiful living surface
around the land, forming a new hill in a
place already surrounded by many.
The architecture is like an accent on
the words of a poem, like a comma or
a question mark, but never the actual
poem itself. The poem is already written
by the pines, the oaks, the sweet acacia,
the fireflies, the road, the fence, the
neighbour’s well, the earth, the orchard,
and the nightingale.
Four concrete walls contribute accents
South façade to the poem, surprisingly emerging from
Photo credit: Dane Alonso

46 Issue 247 • dw