ViGa Arquitectos Stacks Vaulted Brick Apartments over Street Retail Beside Mexico City's Parque Hundido

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This article covers topics related to Architecture. Steps from Parque Hundido in Mexico City, a 460 m² corner building uses concrete vaults, brick and plywood to add density without erasing the block.

Steps from Parque Hundido in Mexico City, a 460 m² corner building uses concrete vaults, brick and plywood to add density without erasing the block.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Architecture on Oct 31, 2026

Mexico City's consolidated neighborhoods are under constant pressure to hold more people, and the usual answer is a sealed glass box that ignores everything around it. The Porfirio Building, completed in 2025 by ViGa Arquitectos under lead architects Ángela Vizcarra and Alberto García Valladares, takes a different position. It sits on Porfirio Díaz Avenue, less than a hundred meters from Parque Hundido, and packs housing over ground-floor retail into just 460 m².

The building is small, and what makes it worth your attention is how much character it gets from a limited palette. Board-marked concrete barrel vaults, exposed brick, timber shutters and plywood joinery repeat from floor to floor. The result reads as part of the street rather than an object dropped onto it, which is exactly what the architects set out to do: densify without losing identity.

A Corner That Answers the Street

Street corner of the stacked balconies and arched concrete openings, with a blooming jacaranda tree draping purple flowers across the facade

Street facade of arched concrete and brick balconies with timber shutters, a jacaranda tree, a parked taxi and a woman walking a dog

Corner facade of brick, timber and concrete with planted balconies, a jacaranda in bloom and a red car parked at the curb

The street facade is a grid of arched concrete bays filled with brick and timber shutters, and each bay holds a planted balcony. The arch does real civic work here. It gives a modest residential block a recognizable rhythm and a sense of depth, so the facade throws shadow instead of reflecting the street back at itself.

The jacaranda in front matters as much as any material choice. In bloom it drapes purple across the arches, and the balconies are set back enough to let the canopy and the building overlap. The taxi, the parked car and the woman walking her dog in these shots all make the same point: this is a building designed to be seen from the sidewalk at walking pace.

From Above, It Blends In

Aerial view of the brick and concrete block with an exterior steel stair and small balconies, seen over neighboring rooftops in hazy daylight

Aerial top-down view of two concrete roofs between red-tiled neighbours, with street trees and parked cars in afternoon light

The aerial views are the most honest test of the contextual claim. Among red-tiled roofs and street trees, the two concrete roofs register as a quiet addition, about the same grain and height as their neighbors. The exterior steel stair and small balconies on the side wall are visible, but nothing tries to dominate the skyline.

We think this restraint is the project's strongest urban argument. Density here arrives by filling a lot carefully, not by breaking the scale of the block.

Thresholds, Stairs and Plants

Street corner entrance with a gray metal door beneath a cantilevered planter, hanging vines and raw concrete walls in hard sunlight

Exterior brick stair lined with terracotta pots and a tall spiky palm, with timber treads under dappled light

At the corner entrance, a plain gray metal door sits under a cantilevered planter with vines hanging down over raw concrete. It is a modest gesture that softens the hardest part of the building, where it meets the sidewalk. The brief separates the retail, which has its own access from Porfirio Díaz Avenue, from the housing above, and these thresholds are where that separation becomes physical.

The exterior brick stair, lined with terracotta pots and a tall palm, turns circulation into a garden path. Landscape architects Patio clearly had a hand in making the climb up to the apartments feel like part of daily domestic life rather than a service route.

The Vault as Organizing Device

Corridor under a concrete barrel vault opening to a balcony, with sunlight on the brick wall and a tree outside

Concrete and brick stairwell under a barrel vault, with steel railings and terrazzo-like steps lit by daylight

Room with a vaulted concrete ceiling and timber shutters opening onto a leafy tree canopy and a steel railing

Inside, the concrete barrel vault is everywhere: over corridors, over the stairwell, over the rooms. The vault does several jobs at once. It sets a consistent ceiling geometry, it gives small rooms more volume than their floor area suggests, and it ties the interior to the arches on the facade so that the building reads as one idea from street to bedroom.

The stairwell is a good example. Brick walls, steel railings and terrazzo-like steps catch daylight under the curved ceiling, and a utilitarian space ends up with real presence. With engineering by Grupo SAI, the board-marked finish is left exposed, and that honesty about how the building is made carries much of its warmth.

Plywood Does the Domestic Work

Plywood kitchen with granite counters beneath a half-moon clerestory window set in the concrete vault, with a timber door at right

Plywood shelving partition framing the kitchen, set between exposed brick walls and a board-marked concrete ceiling

Narrow plywood-clad corridor with built-in drawers and shelves leading to a flush door with a recessed pull

Concrete and brick give you the shell; plywood makes the apartments livable. Kitchens are built in plywood with granite counters, shelving partitions frame the cooking zones, and a narrow corridor is lined entirely with built-in drawers and shelves that end at a flush door with a recessed pull.

This is a smart division of labor in a building this compact. Storage becomes part of the walls, and the soft, warm plywood offsets the weight of the vaults above. The half-moon clerestory set into the concrete above the kitchen is a small move that shows how carefully light was handled where the vault meets the wall.

Windows onto the Canopy

Open living area with a plywood bookcase, vaulted concrete ceiling and arched skylight above a kitchen counter, lit by daylight

Interior corner with a vaulted concrete ceiling, brick walls and timber shutters framing a large window onto a leafy tree

The living spaces use arched skylights and large shuttered windows to pull in daylight and frame the street trees. From inside, the jacaranda and surrounding foliage fill the openings, so even a tight city apartment feels connected to the green corridor around Parque Hundido.

Timber shutters give residents control over privacy and sun, which matters on a busy avenue. The housing stays private, as the concept intends, without turning its back on the neighborhood.

Plans and Drawings

Ground floor plan drawing of a triangular site showing living area, kitchen, two bedrooms, stairs and a street tree

First level plan drawing showing bedrooms and bathrooms in two angled volumes split by a central stair, with a tree canopy above

Second level plan drawing showing two apartments with living, dining and kitchen zones on either side of a central stair

The plans reveal a triangular site, and ViGa's response is to split the building into two angled volumes around a central stair. That stair becomes the spine: it lets the second level hold two apartments with living, dining and kitchen zones on either side, while bedrooms and bathrooms sit in the angled wings below. Working a wedge-shaped lot this efficiently is the quiet technical achievement behind the facade.

Axonometric drawing of two adjoining townhouse blocks with arched openings and vaulted roofs, set among outlined neighbors and bare street trees

Cutaway section drawing of the stacked apartments with vaulted top floor, central stair, ground-level garage with a jeep and bicycles, and residents inside

The axonometric reads the project as two adjoining townhouse-like blocks with vaulted roofs, set among neighbors drawn in outline. The section is the most telling drawing: stacked apartments, a vaulted top floor, the central stair, and a ground level with a garage, a jeep and bicycles. The drawings suggest a ground floor that mixes parking, access and commercial use, a flexible base that supports the homes above.

Elevation drawing of the side facade with brick wall, exterior stair, three garage doors and a small figure on a balcony

Elevation drawing of the street facade showing four arched bays per floor, planted balconies, an entry stair and a figure in the doorway

Colored elevation collage of brick and timber arched bays with planted balconies, a central stair, residents, a dog, a cat and a yellow bicycle

The elevations confirm the logic of the street front: four arched bays per floor, planted balconies, an entry stair. The side elevation exposes the brick wall, exterior stair and garage doors. The colored collage, populated with residents, a dog, a cat and a yellow bicycle, makes clear what the architects care about most, which is everyday life rather than the object itself.

Why This Project Matters

Infill housing rarely gets editorial attention because it is small, but this is where most cities actually grow. The Porfirio Building shows that a 460 m² project on an awkward triangular lot can add homes and street retail while strengthening, not diluting, the character of its block. The repeated arch, the exposed vault and the planted balcony give it identity without spectacle.

For architects working in dense Latin American cities, the lesson is about economy of means. A disciplined palette of concrete, brick, timber and plywood, organized around a single structural gesture, can produce a building that feels both contemporary and rooted. ViGa Arquitectos makes a convincing case that density and identity do not have to be traded against each other.

Porfirio Building by ViGa Arquitectos (lead architects Ángela Vizcarra and Alberto García Valladares; design team Ariadna Gutiérrez, Brisa Herrera and Julio Romero), Ciudad de México, Mexico. Area: 460 m². Completed: 2025. Landscape architecture: Patio. Structural engineering: Grupo SAI. Electrical engineering: Grupo MEB. Photography by Ángela Vizcarra and Christian Ortega.

About the Studio

ViGa Arquitectos

Official website of ViGa Arquitectos, one of the studios behind this project.

vigaarquitectos.com

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