Las Americas offers a compelling counterproposal in León, Mexico—a city long shaped by horizontal expansion and unchecked suburban sprawl. Designed by SOLID OBJECTIVES IDENBURG LIU (SO–IL) in collaboration with Imuvi Development and the City of León, the project critically challenges the dominant low-density housing model by introducing a vertical typology that is both economically viable and spatially humane. The result is not merely a building but a prototype: a spatial and social experiment in compact urban living, intended to seed future urban regeneration across similar contexts.
Las Americas Housing Technical Information
- Architects1-3: SOLID OBJECTIVES IDENBURG LIU (SO–IL)
- Location: León, Guanajuato, Mexico
- Area: 3,000 m2 | 32,300 Sq. Ft.
- Completion Year: 2021
- Photographs: © Iwan Baan, © Lorena Darquea
We have always believed housing to be an essential part of every city, and that quality housing should be a right for all.
– Florian Idenburg, Co-founder, SO – IL
Las Americas Housing Photographs
Rethinking Density: Urban Context and Design Intent
León’s housing landscape has long been defined by mass-produced, detached dwellings on the city’s outskirts—typologies that have inadvertently deepened urban inequality, stretched municipal services, and disconnected residents from the city’s social and economic core. The proliferation of these freestanding homes has led to an alarming loss of density, undermining the viability of public infrastructure and transit systems.
Las Americas confronts this condition by proposing an alternative: a 60-unit vertical housing block located within the city’s central fabric. This strategic siting is as political as it is architectural, repositioning affordable housing not as a peripheral necessity but as urban infrastructure. By densifying inward rather than sprawling outward, the project reclaims the promise of a walkable, interconnected city—one in which housing is integrated into the economic and cultural life of the metropolis.
The design intends to bridge the psychological and spatial gap between detached single-family dwellings and collective vertical living. Rather than merely stacking units, SO – IL sought to craft a building that could emulate the spatial dignity, privacy, and autonomy associated with freestanding homes while leveraging the economic efficiencies of collective infrastructure.
Spatial Qualities: Organization, Privacy, and Dwelling Experience
A defining feature of Las Americas is its single-loaded corridor system—a pragmatic yet nuanced spatial decision that allows all units to open onto dual interior courtyards. This configuration ensures cross-ventilation and daylighting in each unit while creating a porous boundary between private and communal space. While modest in size, these courtyards function as microclimatic regulators and potential social condensers, offering the possibility of shared encounters without compromising individual privacy.
Crucially, the design ensures that no unit directly faces another—an architectural gesture that preserves the residents’ sense of seclusion and ownership. This arrangement signals a subtle but significant shift in a context where vertical housing is often associated with overcrowding and anonymity. The building’s internal logic suggests that density need not come at the expense of intimacy or identity.
The corridors themselves, often neglected in affordable housing typologies, are not reduced to utilitarian conduits but treated as extensions of the domestic realm—transitional spaces that mediate between the private unit and the shared life of the building. Views to the neighborhood and courtyards reinforce a sense of belonging and visual connection to the surrounding city.
Materiality and Prefabrication: Building Character Under Constraint
Working within the constraints of a minimal budget, SO – IL turned to prefabrication and modularity as tools of both economy and expression. Utility cores are shared across units, minimizing infrastructural redundancy, while prefabricated components expedite construction and reduce costs without compromising spatial quality.
Most notable is the façade system, composed of uniquely developed concrete blocks. These units do more than mask the building’s structure—they actively contribute to its environmental and experiential performance. The blocks are configured to filter light, enhance privacy, and introduce subtle variations in texture and shadow. They cast rhythmic patterns from within that enrich the interior atmosphere; from without, they generate a tactile, monolithic identity that responds to León’s material vernacular while establishing its architectural voice.
This synthesis of economy and character reflects a broader ethos throughout the project: material constraints need not result in aesthetic impoverishment. Instead, limitation becomes a catalyst for innovation—an opportunity to reexamine conventional hierarchies between cost, quality, and design intent.
Las Americas Housing Prototype Potential
Las Americas is not simply a one-off solution but a prototype with systemic ambitions. By proposing a replicable model for urban affordable housing, the project speaks directly to the challenges facing many Latin American cities: rising inequality, infrastructural fragmentation, and the urgent need for sustainable density. In this light, the project’s significance lies in its built form and strategic alliances between architects, municipal actors, and private developers to reform urban housing policy.
Significantly, the project reframes the idea of affordable housing in cultural terms. It resists the notion that such developments must be utilitarian, remote, or stigmatized. Instead, it argues for a new vernacular rooted in material honesty, spatial intelligence, and urban integration.
Las Americas Housing Plans
Las Americas Housing Image Gallery
About SOLID OBJECTIVES IDENBURG LIU (SO–IL)
SOLID OBJECTIVES IDENBURG LIU (SO–IL) is a New York–based architectural practice founded in 2008 by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu. The firm is known for its innovative, tactile approach to architecture that emphasizes material experimentation, spatial fluidity, and cultural engagement. SO–IL’s work spans exhibitions, public buildings, and housing projects worldwide, often blurring boundaries between inside and outside and provoking interaction through light, texture, and form.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Team: Florian Idenburg, Ilias Papageorgiou, Isabel Sarasa, Seunghyun Kang, Sophie Nichols, Pam Anantrungroj
- Consultants: Amador Rodriguez, Ruben Alejandro Vazquez Rivera (Imuvi)
- Client: Imuvi Development & City of León
