The architects at Taller Enrique Norten Arquitectos (TEN) are internationally renowned for their artful renovations that concentrate on the manipulation of the skin of a structure to breathe new life into unremarkable constructions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Hotel Habita, the first boutique hotel in Mexico City but formerly an ugly brick and concrete five-storey 1950s apartment block.
TEN wrapped the original facade in a glowing green carapace of frosted and translucent glass. The outer glazed wall is composed of a series of rectangular panels, attached by stainless-steel fittings, screening the old balconies and new circulation.
The double skin acts as an aesthetic, acoustic, and climatic buffer, concealing ugly elements of the Mexico City skyline with bands of opaque glass white revealing better views in narrow strips of clear glass.
At night the hotel metamorphoses as it is transformed into a constantly changing jewellery box of exotic colour – a building of artistic elegance that protects its guests behind a magical glass bubble.
