Embracing Ambiguity: UC House in Morelia by Daniela Bucio Sistos.

Photography by Dane Alonso.

Making the intangible tangible through awareness of sunlight while using the principles of ocular-centrism to create a comfortable vagueness is Daniela Bucio Sistos’ UC House. This 550 square metre home is purposely made to appear humble on the exterior, mischievously waiting to surprise visitors as they travel up upon the concealed entrance – offering an experience that resembles a brick themed pavilion stitched with green house principles.

Located in the outskirts of Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, UC House unfolded from the clients’ request to create a building to house over 8,000 books. Along with Bucio Sistos’ principal focus in creating “a project with certain spatial ambiguity between the interior and exterior spaces”, the house’s corridor-like plan achieves a harmonious outcome.

Past the concealed entrance reveals a grand circular foyer serving as the core axis of the home with a corridor spine that stretches across its length. Cosily flanking between the corridor are four bedrooms, kitchen and living with floor to ceiling glazing that looks towards the cedar trees beyond.

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Photography by Mariano Renteria.

Photography by Dane Alonso.

Photography by Mariano Renteria.

Initially a site with very minimal vegetation, Bucio Sistos introduced microclimates, organising sightlines to have a form of connection to the surrounds. The grand foyer’s central point is marked by a singular tree gently crowned by an open framed skylight, while circular windows punctured on either side offer an implied expansion of the space.

Towards the end of the house, just before the garden, is a terrace with exposed framework, and custom concrete casted joinery is fitted with a pocket to allow plants to grow. Stretching to the end of the garden is a bespoke water feature for tickling water to reinforce a peaceful reverie.

Drawing colours from the landscape, the interior is washed in swatches of terracotta’s relationship with light. External walls are characterised by textured and patterned protruding brickwork resembling unevenly stacked books. Exposed yet roughly polished concrete untreated for the ceiling and pigmented in dusty peach line the interior walls.

Photography by Mariano Renteria.

Photography by Dane Alonso.

Photography by Mariano Renteria.

Photography by Dane Alonso.

Photography by Dane Alonso.

With the ceiling lifted enough to allow high-light windows to wrap around each area, and some glazing and skylights fitted with vertical framing – the sense of density and heaviness dissipates from the soft ribbons of light. Circular motifs ripples from the axis – it’s found in the semi-enclosed circle in the doorways gracefully held by the bookshelf; round windows punctured on the external walls of the entrance; circular joinery handles – a constant signal that to inform us of a new destination within.

The layered complexity found in the companionship between materiality and light allows UC House to transport visitors into a realm of summer dreams. Rooms with entrances are aligned slightly off from each other to ignite curiosity and encourage the walk from one room to another. Meanwhile, the natural light serves as a tangible wayfinding mechanism, and materiality is arched and bent as if to signpost another environment within – like a joyful carousel spun from sundial light.

[Images courtesy of Daniela Bucio Sistos. Photography by Dane Alonso and Mariano Renteria Garnica.]