0studio Arquitectura sets 11-unit Zayma housing around a central courtyard

0studio Arquitectura is completing Zayma, an 8,605-square-metre residential development of eleven units arranged in three volumes around a single central courtyard, with the project slated for delivery in 2026.

The Mexico-based practice, led by Juan Antonio Corcuera and Miguel Angel Delgado, initiated the project in 2022. The firm treats the courtyard as the project's primary spatial device rather than a residual void between buildings.

What does the courtyard actually do?

According to the architects, the courtyard performs four overlapping tasks at once. It organizes circulation through the complex. It controls access to each of the eleven units. It frames views between the three volumes. It anchors the shared spaces.

In the practice's own description, "the courtyard is more than a void between buildings; it is the element that establishes the relationships among the complex's diverse components."

Vegetation, natural light and cross-ventilation enter the project through that single opening, the firm said.

How is the massing arranged?

The development breaks into three volumes. The architects have not released unit counts per volume or floor-area data for each block, but the eleven homes share the 8,605 m² site, with the courtyard occupying the connective tissue between them.

Project photography is credited to Cesar Belio.

Who is behind it?

0studio Arquitectura operates with Corcuera and Delgado as lead architects. The Zayma project marks another residential commission for the practice, which has built a portfolio of housing and adaptive-reuse work in Mexico.

What does the project signal for courtyard housing in Mexico?

The brief returns to a long-standing vernacular device in Mexican residential architecture: the patio as organizer. Zayma applies that logic at a mid-scale, multi-family footprint of 8,605 m², where shared outdoor space replaces the typical corridor or stair.

With completion set for 2026, Zayma will add eleven units to a housing market that has leaned increasingly on private infill towers. The courtyard scheme instead concentrates density around a single shared landscape room, a model that can absorb future programs—communal kitchens, workspaces, gathering areas—without altering the building envelope.

The project will be tested on whether three-volume organization around one void can deliver the privacy of single-family housing at the cost structure of multi-family construction. Built Current will track occupancy, unit sales and shared-space use once the development opens.