DL1310, a newly completed seven-unit apartment building in Mexico City designed by the architecture office Young & Ayata with Michan Architecture, is the product of reduction. Early on in its planning, some five years ago, the decision was made to set the building back on two sides to allow more air and light into the midblock site. By shrinking the footprint, the height could be increased, a valuable maneuver given the sloped lot with views onto a ravine and the southern reaches of the city. When the first version of the design came in over budget, the architects resolved to be less expressive, settling instead on a cast-in-place concrete box with irregular window apertures. A protracted permitting process and an ill-timed zoning dispute (after a new municipal government took office) shrank the scheme's five floors to four, upending the initial financial calculus of the development. As construction commenced, value engineering loomed over the project.
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