Perched on a steep hillside in rural Mexico, Casa Martha matches geometric rigour with a raw, favela functionality. The house is the work of Naso, a practice founded by José Ignacio Vargas in 2018. It was built on the site of a house destroyed by an earthquake in 2017 and is one of 50 houses built as part of the ReConstruir México project.
Casa Martha was constructed on the footprint of the damaged house and is designed to accommodate the family who lived there, an elderly couple with mobility problems and their two chilidren. And Vargas was determined that both generations could support each other but also live as independently as possible.
MORE FROM WALLPAPER* ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY 2020
The layout and circulation of the house are clear and unobstructed with the kitchen, dining room, bathroom and two bedrooms all on the ground floor. Sliding doors open much of the space to the outdoors and a large porch. A third bedroom is housed on smaller second level, topped with a barrel-vaulted concrete roof, which has its own entrance via an outside staircase. The house is close to the towns Malinalco and Chalma, major draws for pilgrims and tourists, and the second floor could be rented out to provide extra income for the family.
Much of the house was built using compacted earth blocks produced on site which were left exposed. And Vargas, who studied in Mexico, Glasgow and London, says Casa Martha’s raw essentialism is at the heart of its appeal; but that it is the result of complex considerations. ‘To design a house requires fully understanding the social, political, economic and physical context in which the house is placed.'
INFORMATION
-
How Achille Castiglioni helped shape postwar Italy with enduring designEverything you need to know about Achille Castiglioni, the Italian designer whose works – honest and punctuated by playfulness –helped shape a country
-
Tobi Masa lands at The Chancery RosewoodChef Masa Takayama’s debut London restaurant transforms modernist geometry into a space of ritual calm and culinary purity
-
Bionic Labs builds precision next-level Apple accessories from aluminium and stainless steelFrom stands, chargers and keyboard trays to a set of accessories for the Vision Pro, Parisian design studio Bionic Labs offers only the best for your Apple gear
-
Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan's Grupo de Diseño wins 2025 Oberlander PrizeThe 2025 Oberlander Prize goes to Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his studio, Grupo de Diseño, highlighting the creative's motto: 'We have a human right to open space'
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthThis September, Wallpaper highlighted a striking mix of architecture – from iconic modernist homes newly up for sale to the dramatic transformation of a crumbling Scottish cottage. These are the projects that caught our eye
-
A Mexican clifftop retreat offers both drama, and a sense of placeCasa Piscina del cielo, a clifftop retreat by Zozaya Arquitectos, creates the perfect blend of drama and cosiness on Mexico's Pacific Coast
-
Broken up into six pavilions, this brutalist Mexican house is embedded in the landscapeSordo Madaleno’s brutalist Mexican house, Rancho del Bosque, is divided up into a series of pavilions to preserve the character of its hillside site, combining concrete, curves and far-reaching views
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthWallpaper* has spotlighted an array of remarkable architecture in the past month – from a pink desert home to structures that appears to float above the ground. These are the houses and buildings that most captured our attention in August 2025
-
Estudio Ome on how the goal of its landscapes ‘is to provoke, even through a subtle detail, an experience’The Mexico City-based practice explores landscape architecture in Mexico, France and beyond, seeking to unite ‘art and ecology’
-
Pretty in cactus-inspired pink, this Mexican desert house responds to its arid contextCasa Cardona, a pink house by architects Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana, is a multigenerational home that celebrates colour and changing light
-
As climate disasters increase, can architecture respond? Kon-tigo, a post-hurricane Acapulco house design, shows us howKon-tigo is a housing project by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, which creates bioclimatic homes that address climate disasters and inequalities in Acapulco, Mexico
