A minimalist Mexican home has rocky roots
Echegaray, a minimalist Mexican home by Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados, draws on its rocky site, which peeps out from its lower levels
Echegaray, a minimalist Mexican home, rises from its site, an opaque, dark, geometric formation standing on rocky terrain. Designed by Mexico City studio Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA), the house, located in the State of Mexico, was conceived as a 'solid black stone with a wooden pavilion on top'. Tactile and elemental, the design draws on the nature of its context, while at the same time responding to the client's brief for an elegant, contemporary family home.
The rocky base of this minimalist Mexican home
The architects composed the home to emerge from the ground, culminating in the uppermost level's terrace and light timber structure. This transition – from solid to transparent, and from heavy to ethereal – is underscored by the material selection and overall spatial treatment that plays with surface textures and light. The site's rock, excavated during the foundation build, has been left exposed on the lower level, bringing a sense of roughness and tectonic qualities to the architecture. Meanwhile, minimalist architecture of clean lines and smooth planes dominates above, till the journey leads up to the fully glass-enclosed top pavilion that opens up to the city beyond through long urban vistas and blue sky views.
'The house is made to be discovered, like going up a mountain: the project is a closed block that contains private spaces, and only when you go up to the social area on the top floor do you discover the full-length view of the land,' the architecture team, which is led by founder Pablo Pérez Palacios, writes.
In this design, the typical residential programme has been turned on its head, with the communal living spaces placed at the open, flowing top floor; private spaces below; and the closed-off, darker ground level hosting the garage. It is in this last space that 'the stony ground has been left exposed', the architects explain, offering a captivating natural display that is also celebrated through the side views of the bedrooms just above.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
A new limited-edition Rhodes piano and Gibson doubleneck guitar aim for the stars
The new Rhodes Mk8 Earth Edition piano and Gibson Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck guitar revisit classic instruments at a price
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The new interior design trends we spotted at Salone del Mobile 2024
These are the interior design trends to look out for in 2024 and beyond, from soft upholstery to conversation pits and low dining
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaign
Tiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Modernist architecture: inspiration from across the globe
Modernist architecture has had a tremendous influence on today’s built environment, making these midcentury marvels some of the most closely studied 20th-century buildings; check back soon for new additions to our list
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Antonio Solá offers a residential haven of calm in Mexico City
Antonio Solá, a new housing project by architecture studio Módica Ledezma, is a complex of four townhouses that offer serenity in the bustle of Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Mexican artist’s studio makes the most of light and volume in San Miguel Chapultepec
A Mexican artist's studio and home, designed by JJRR in the heart of Mexico City, makes the most of volume and light for its owner, Stefan Brüggemann
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Pabellón de la Reserva and its sustainable architecture nod to its natural setting
Pabellón de la Reserva by architecture studio Hemaa offers an idyllic countryside getaway, a stone's throw from Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Orchid Pavilion channels Japanese philosophy for blossoming flowers in Puerto Escondido
Orchid Pavilion by CCA Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica provides fitting shelter for flower conservation in Mexico's Casa Wabi
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Residential development The Village on the Yucatán Peninsula frames its verdant environment
The Village by Sordo Madaleno is a meticulously composed apartment building, built on a strict grid with an emphasis on outside space and connection to site
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
1i Arquitectura’s House of the Tall Trees celebrates a spectacular forested site
This Mexican retreat, House of the Tall Trees, makes the most of a wooded site with a striking combination of glass, timber and concrete
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Casa Carrizo was designed as a breezy Mexican beach house
Casa Carrizo, designed by Mexican architecture studio BAAQ, is a beach house sitting on the idyllic shores of Mexico’s Pacific coast
By Ellie Stathaki Published