Casa Sofia | © Zaickz Moz Casa Sofia, a recent project by AMASA Estudio, addresses the layered complexities of architectural intervention within Mexico City’s Colonia Roma, a neighborhood celebrated for its early 20th-century character but increasingly shaped by speculative pressures and fragmented land use. Just six blocks from Parque México, the house occupies a site caught between cultural significance and economic inertia. Originally built in the 1940s, the building underwent a series of unsympathetic interventions over the decades, most notably its conversion into office space. By the time AMASA Estudio began its work, the house had stood empty for over a decade. Casa Sofia Technical Information Architects1-7: AMASA Estudio Location: Colonia Roma, Mexico City, Mexico Area: 215 m2 | 2,315 Sq. Ft. Completion Year: 2024 Photographs: © Zaickz Moz, © Gerardo Reyes Bustamante The integration of contemporary elements can return life and functionality to the historic constructions of the area. – AMASA Estudio Architects Casa Sofia Photographs © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz © Gerardo Reyes Bustamante © Zaickz Moz © Zaickz Moz Contextual Framework: Urban Fabric, Zoning, and Speculative Vacancy The architects were tasked with renovating and negotiating the tensions between preservation and contemporary inhabitation. Zoning restrictions in the area often preclude new development, inadvertently incentivizing abandonment and deterioration. Within this context, AMASA’s approach reclaims architectural value by demonstrating how adaptive reuse, when carefully considered, can simultaneously address housing shortages and preserve urban identity. Rather than erasing the building’s history, the project adopts a regenerative approach, rethinking the building’s typology and embedding flexibility into the spatial program. In doing so, Casa Sofia becomes a case study of how small-scale interventions can challenge speculative dormancy and reintroduce vibrancy to historic neighborhoods. Architectural Strategy: Inversion, Layering, and Programmatic Flexibility The architectural response centers on spatial inversion and vertical stratification. While the original commission envisioned a straightforward single-family restoration, AMASA Estudio identified the need for a more complex program to ensure viability and relevance. The result is a tripartite configuration: a ground-floor apartment, a flexible garage/commercial unit, and a redefined primary residence beginning on the first floor. This inversion of the conventional domestic hierarchy, placing private spaces on the middle floor and public functions at the top, is more than a pragmatic solution. It reflects a critical rethinking of domestic routines in dense urban contexts. The reallocation of living functions enables three degrees of occupancy: short-term rental, residential use, and commercial potential, each with independent access. At ground level, the vestibule becomes a threshold of coexistence. To the left is a compact yet complete one-bedroom apartment; to the right is a hybrid space adaptable as a garage or storefront; and ahead is the entrance to the main dwelling. The logic of flexibility is woven into every decision, resisting fixed-use zoning and instead proposing an architecture open to evolving modes of urban living. On the second floor, the public realm unfolds in an open-plan configuration that deliberately contrasts the spatial enclosure below. A continuous space integrates living, kitchen, and dining functions, culminating in a terrace that extends the domestic interior outward. This gesture, a horizontal void defined by operable walls, foregrounds the importance of architectural porosity in temperate climates. Light, Circulation, and Spatial Atmosphere Natural light is not merely admitted but orchestrated. A circular skylight punctures the ceiling above the staircase, casting vertical illumination along the building’s spine and subtly guiding the eye upward. It introduces a moment of tectonic tension, where the logic of light meets the logic of circulation. This vertical axis becomes the fulcrum of the spatial experience. The spiral staircase, painted in a distinct green hue, is not hidden but celebrated as an expressive sculptural form. It mediates the transition from compression to expansion, from the seclusion of bedrooms to the openness of the social level. Light enters primarily from above and laterally through folding window panels that open completely to the terrace. The absence of interior partitions on the upper floor allows light to wash uninterrupted across surfaces, emphasizing material textures and the gradient between inside and outside. In contrast, the lower levels, shaded and defined, offer a more intimate atmosphere, underscoring the designers’ sensitivity to light as both a spatial and emotional element. Casa Sofia Restoration Ethos Rather than defaulting to nostalgic restoration, the architects embrace a contemporary material palette rooted in coherence and restraint. The project does not attempt to replicate the past but defines a new architectural narrative grounded in contrast and continuity. The use of a singular green tone for all metalwork, staircases, doors, railings, and furniture introduces a unifying chromatic identity. This bold yet controlled gesture resonates against the subdued gray plaster walls, creating a dynamic interplay between reflection and shadow. The palette is neither flashy nor muted; it is precise, allowing light to animate its surfaces without overwhelming the space. Importantly, the intervention avoids decorative mimicry. Structural upgrades, new spatial logic, and minimalist detailing coexist with the building’s historical shell. This architectural restraint makes the original form legible while enabling new uses to emerge organically. AMASA Estudio’s broader practice often grapples with similar conditions: the friction between permanence and transformation, especially in urban areas burdened by regulatory inertia and socio-economic flux. Casa Sofia embodies this approach, presenting architecture not as a static form but as a series of spatial and material negotiations between past and present, regulation and imagination, economy, and poetics. Casa Sofia Plans Ground Floor | © AMASA Estudio First Floor | © AMASA Estudio Second Floor | © AMASA Estudio Section | © AMASA Estudio Isometric View | © AMASA Estudio Casa Sofia Image Gallery About AMASA Estudio Credits and Additional Notes Lead Architects: Andrea López, Agustín Pereyra Design Team: Cesar Huerta, Gerardo Reyes Client: ECOBIART Inmobiliaria Construction: Erik Cortés Ortega Structural Engineering: Juan Felipe Heredia Installations Engineering: Germán Muñoz Lighting Design: Andrea López, Agustín Pereyra