Eduardo Garretti studio Tops a Century-Old Guadalajara House with a 25 m² Rooftop Pavilion of Steel and Bamboo

Colonia Americana is one of Guadalajara's most layered neighborhoods. Early twentieth century houses there have been subdivided, restored and repurposed for cafés, studios and shops many times over. Rayón 376 Terrace, by Eduardo Garretti studio with lead architect Eduardo Garrido and designer Ricardo López Carrero, adds a small new layer to one of these houses. It is a 25 m² rooftop pavilion and covered terrace sitting above a building that architects Aureliano Alejos and Leonora Castorena had already renovated to improve its spatial quality and habitability.

What interests us is how restrained the project is. A second intervention on an already renovated historic house could easily turn into a statement piece. Here the studio sets coherence with the existing house as its main goal, and the result reads like a quiet rooftop room built from a short list of parts: black steel frames, glass, exposed timber, cane and bamboo, clay pots and planting. With 25 m² to work with, every material choice carries a lot of weight, and the team seems to know it.

A Pavilion That Grows Out of the Planting

From below, the pavilion barely registers as an addition. Timber rafters and rolled bamboo blinds rise over a wall thick with climbing vines, set between white stucco walls that belong to the older house. The upward views show how much the planting does for the composition. Olive-like branches and creepers partly screen the edge, so the new structure reads as a shaded canopy rather than a new floor.

At the corner of the pergola, a black steel beam rests on a slim round column, with bamboo roofing laid over the timber. This is the project's structural vocabulary in one frame: a thin steel line for spanning, timber for rhythm, and woven natural material for shade. Nothing is oversized, which suits a rooftop where weight and visual bulk both matter.

Folding Steel Doors That Turn a Room into a Terrace

The enclosed part of the pavilion depends on black steel and glass folding doors. Closed, they make a small glazed room with a timber floor and plywood cabinetry. Opened fully, they stack back and the room becomes an extension of the terracotta-tiled terrace. For a space this small, that flexibility is the whole point. You get one room that can be both sheltered and open, instead of two rooms that are each too small.

We also like the honesty of the plywood shelving. It is an inexpensive, workmanlike material, and here it sits next to the steel frames without apology. Beyond the doors, distant church spires show up in the haze. That is a reminder that a rooftop in Colonia Americana is as much about framing the city as it is about enclosure.

Shade as an Adjustable Layer

Guadalajara's sun is strong for much of the year, and the terrace handles it with the simplest possible tool: bamboo roller blinds hung from the steel frame. Lowered, they turn the covered terrace into a filtered room above a concrete planter bench and terracotta floor. Raised, they let late light rake across the plaster walls and land on clay vessels and a wicker chair.

The cane ceiling under the steel frame continues the same idea overhead. Rather than relying on a solid roof, the project builds shade in porous layers that people can adjust by hand. It is a low-tech approach, and on a small rooftop it is far more convincing than mechanical shading would be.

Light, Ventilation and the Details Up Close

Inside the glazed room, steel-framed hopper windows sit next to exposed timber beams over a plank floor. Above a weathered concrete wall, a black steel clerestory band with timber blocks runs alongside a round roof vent. Together they suggest a room designed to let hot air escape upward and pull light in from high, while keeping the lower walls solid enough for furniture and storage.

These are modest details, but they tell you the pavilion was thought about as a room people actually occupy through the day, not just a photogenic roof. The worn wooden chair and dark vase in the corner help too: the styling leans toward patina rather than polish, which fits a house that is over a century old.

Plans and Drawings

The site plan places the rectangular pavilion at one corner of a courtyard arrangement organized around a central tree, paved terrace and planting beds. The pavilion takes a supporting role in the composition. The sections make the split clear: a gridded glazed volume with its roof vent on one side, an open pergola over cactus planters on the other. The second section shows the gently sloped roof and the cylindrical roof lantern, confirming that the vent seen in the photographs is a deliberate element and not an afterthought.

Why This Project Matters

Cities like Guadalajara are full of historic houses that keep changing hands and uses, and each new owner tends to add something. Rayón 376 Terrace offers a useful model for how to make that addition. It respects an earlier renovation rather than competing with it, keeps its footprint to 25 m², and builds its character from a small, consistent set of materials. The commercial label matters less than the attitude: an addition can be legible as new without being loud.

It is also a reminder that rooftops are underused climatic territory. Folding glass walls, roller blinds, a cane ceiling, a roof vent and dense planting add up to a room that adjusts to the weather with very little technology. For architects working with small budgets and old structures, that combination of restraint and adaptability is worth studying.

Rayón 376 Terrace by Eduardo Garretti studio (lead architect Eduardo Garrido, design team Ricardo López Carrero), Guadalajara, Mexico. Area: 25 m². Completed 2025. Photography by Lazarillo.mx.

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