Dominated by its grid façade, strong materiality and clean, geometric volumes, Agua 210 is an impactful residential design created by Mexican architecture practice HEMAA, led by Alejandra Tornel, Jose Miguel Fainsod and Santiago Hernández Matos. What a quick, close-up glance doesn’t reveal is that this noble home is part of the iconic residential landscape of the Jardines de Pedregal, the Mexico City development created by modernist architecture master Luis Barragán.
The area, also known simply as El Pedregal, takes its name from the petrified lava that covered the area when the Xitle volcano erupted some 1,600 years ago (pedregal means ‘rocky place’). In the 1940s, Barragán undertook a residential experiment to transform it into a place that unites visionary architecture and nature, resulting in well-known works such as Casa Prieto-López, which was recently bought and restored by businessman and art collector César Cervantes. Agua 210 sits in the same family of houses, proudly announcing its presence through tall, sharp volumes and a nod to the area’s roots.
The architects wanted to create a contemporary home that is a ‘reinterpretation of a house from the 1950s’, while also maintaining the all-important relationship of the building with its natural surroundings. Basing their design on the abstract footprint of an outline that Barragán himself created, the team at HEMAA worked across two main axes to compose a series of spaces that offer everything from privacy to openness, and from warm domestic comfort to cool, sharp lines.
A verdant garden engulfs the home, elevating the composition. ‘As a visual finish, a succulent garden serves as a space for contemplation and silence,’ explain the architects. The green space also features a piece by Tezontle Studio that draws on the sculpture garden by poet and artist Edward James in the Huasteca jungle.
The spacious interiors balance cool concrete with soft timber and bespoke joinery that wraps entire rooms. Large windows confidently cut out of the façade frame the views of the greenery and landscape beyond. Meanwhile, grey quarry stone cladding on the façade elegantly hints at El Pedregal’s heritage and rocky nature, bridging past, present and future.
INFORMATION
-
Discover The Legacy, Hong Kong’s eye-catching new condoThe Legacy, by ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, is a striking new condo tower that aims to ‘create a sense of community and solidarity among people’
-
In BDSM biker romance ‘Pillion’, clothes become a medium for ‘fantasy and fetishism’Costume designer Grace Snell breaks down the leather-heavy wardrobe for the Alexander Skarsgård-starring Pillion, which traces a dom/sub relationship between a shy parking attendant and a biker
-
Tour Aflalo’s first retail space, a gallery-like studio in New YorkLight-filled and elegant, Aflalo has opened its first retail space in a classic Soho loft, reimagined by Nordic Knots Studio
-
Serenity radiates through this Mexican home, set between two ravinesOn the cusp of a lakeside town, Mexican home Casa el Espino is a single-storey residence by Soler Orozco Arquitectos (SOA)
-
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
