El Cortés is decidedly easy on the eye; an exquisite meshing of old and new set behind a balustraded art nouveau façade in arty Roma Norte. Bold, aesthete-pleasing objets are cleverly juxtaposed against heaps of original features restored by top-of-their-game craftspeople, with the occasional folksy touch – think shocking pink dahlias jutting out of dainty talavera vessels – further rooting the spaces in their surroundings. There’s a timelessness to it, with a great deal of thought and intention paid to the minutiae, yet the overarching mood is softly-tuned, cossetting and not the least bit stiff.

Wallpaper* checks into El Cortés, Mexico City

What’s on your doorstep?

Step outside onto tree-studded Calle Colima and you’re a gentle amble from the many sought-after restaurants, cafés, galleries and ateliers that’ve sprung up in and amongst Roma Norte’s ornate art nouveau mansions. The Museo del Objeto sits on the very same road, and at any given time there are a handful of locals selling Tajín-sprinkled mango slices from streetside carts shaded by colourful parasols.

Who is behind the design?

The interiors are a mastery of textile and layering, and the vision of Mexican owner Carlos Zaragoza, who spent three years renovating every last inch of the place, trawling through archives to uncover old photographs (so as to honour the building’s legacy), and enlisting a team of artisans skilled in traditional techniques. He then set to work tricking it out with a considered smattering of contemporary pieces. ‘My aim was to create a delicate balance,’ explains Zaragoza. ‘I wanted to pull the house back toward its original soul while updating it to reflect the evolution of surrounding Roma Norte.’ This is his first foray into hospitality, though you’d never guess.

Subdued lighting and velvet drapes the colour of storm clouds lend an intimate mood to the low-ceilinged lobby; opposite the hefty wooden check-in desk is a fringed loveseat in a dandelion-yellow hue, strewn with rectangular needlework cushions, and behind it, an enormous art deco mirror bordered with fine vine-like etchings. ‘My favourite piece is a tiny artwork dating back to 1828 that I found at an auction here in Mexico City and now hangs in the first-floor lounge,’ notes Zaragoza. ‘I’ve always had a soft spot for small-scale art, and there’s something captivating about the way the diminutive scale contrasts with its deep history.’

The room to book

With lofty ceilings edged by intricate coving work, pale oak herringbone peeking out from beneath hand-loomed rugs and still-life oil paintings hung in time-worn gilded frames, the 15 bedrooms feel tremendously romantic, while at the same time showing an admirable measure of restraint. Plump, pillowy beds are crowned with headboards upholstered in oxblood velvet, shell-shaped plaster sconces draw the eye upwards, and soft light pours in through paned windows, casting criss-crossed shadows onto the creamy lime-washed plaster. Each has its own appeal, and the level of detail is remarkable (a bespoke talavera tissue box here, a silken tassel hanging from an enamel handle there), though room 103, a Signature Suite up on the first floor, has to be the most fetching of the lot, with tall doors that can be flung open to reveal a little Juliet balcony abutted by an impressive urapán tree.

In the light-filled bathrooms, cylindrical glass sconces flank double vanities crafted with slabs of bold Rosso Levanto marble while rainfall showers are tiled in glossy oxblood, edged with a checkerboard trim, and have niches housing Byredo’s Bal d'Afrique products. A number of them are centred around claw-foot Kohler bathtubs with weighty polished nickel stoppers, and the two Patio Suites feature beautiful stained glass panels reworked by Ramon Sierra, who was involved in restoring the Castillo de Chapultepec. Marigolds and dahlias burst from folksy talavera vases; you’ll find bath salts in hand-carved wooden vessels, and the towels are imbued (ever so subtly) with a fragrance Carlos developed in partnership with the hotel’s laundry service. Rather than opt for something with defined notes, he chose to create a barely-there scent to evoke a sense of purity – the effect is soft, powdery and reminiscent of talc, with a hint of vetiver.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Gently buzzy Lotti – positioned on the hotel’s ground floor and spilling out onto a bijou pavement patio – makes a strong case for staying put in a city of extraordinarily good food. Helmed by Swiss-born chef Luc Liebster and named after his grandmother, it turns out inventive spins on much-loved classics from both Europe and Mexico, crafted with hyper-local ingredients.

Tiny burnished brass clips hold the menus onto grey textured boards, and waiting staff dart around in collarless shirts with the restaurant’s name inscribed across the shoulders in dark thread, carrying plates of astonishing deliciousness. Standouts include the satisfyingly crisp hasselback potatoes with avocado mousse and trout roe, and the shrimp tostada with pico de gallo, kaffir lime and hibiscus, and on the drinks front, the mezcal-heavy Sativa is a must.

Behind the design is sharp-eyed interiors whizz Rosela Barraza, who’s based between Mexico City and Los Angeles. Restored original beams cut across low ceilings of exposed brick; talavera tiles featuring simplistic floral motifs pay homage to Mexico’s old haciendas, and the space is softly lit with slender bronze-cast lights that call to mind primitive fire torches. Hung on the left-hand wall is a pigment-daubed still-life photograph of corn leaves from Luc’s father’s gallery in Zurich, while outside, wrought iron chairs topped with yolk-yellow and white cushions are clustered beneath square-ish umbrellas. Look out, too, for the wild, larger-than-life botanical displays which Rosela arranges herself each week with whatever foliage and flowers she happens upon at the market.

The verdict

El Cortés is a glorious expression of both style and substance, and just about as good as it gets when it comes to boutique stays. Each design-forward addition has been supremely well-considered so as to complement rather than compete with the building’s heritage features, and instead of feeling showy, there’s a rare sort of homeliness to the spaces. As such, it’s somewhere you’ll look forward to returning to time and time again, and you’ll be loath to stay anywhere else in Mexico City.

El Cortés is located at C.Colima 235, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico

Every few months, a new ingredient comes to prominence, amid claims that it will cure the ills caused by modern living: matcha for sustained energy, protein for appetite control, peptides for hormone regulation, CBD for anxiety, and so on. Yet, what if the most effective all-in-one method for achieving all the above has been under our noses for thousands of years?

That was what María Cobar asked herself after she was introduced to cacao – the raw, minimally processed bean (the same that chocolate comes from) that has been prized since ancient times for its nutritional and mood-enhancing benefits.

‘The scientific name for cacao is Theobroma cacao, literally "Food of God”, because of its ability to generate physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing,’ says Cobar. ‘In Mexico, there are all these legends about how the gods stole the cacao tree because it was only meant for the gods, but it was given as a gift to humans so they could focus on the arts and be fully nourished. Now, a thousand years later, people are finally getting it.’

With her brand, María Cacao, Cobar is hoping to help as many people as possible get it by hand-crafting ceremonial strength cacao blocks and flavoured cacao pods (like chocolate candy but with cacao) in her Mexico City store. Of course, cacao has been popular in certain circles for years, with cacao ceremonies, rooted in the tradition of Aztec and Mayan traditions, practised around the world, and plenty of wellness retailers selling the product, albeit often an over-processed, questionably sourced version of the ingredient.

For Cobar, starting her own cacao business was a way to bring cacao to a wider audience, while respecting its heritage and supporting local businesses, with an all-female team working daily to craft every cacao product by hand. There is also a family of farmers working to care for and harvest the cacao trees in the Mexican state of Tabasco.

‘In Mexico we say it's vigorizante – it pumps your veins,’ says Cobar. ‘When Hernán Cortés came to Mexico, he wrote a letter to Carlos V in Spain saying, “These people drink this very strange seed that they use as currency, and just a single dose of this beverage can sustain a soldier in battle for an entire day because it's so nourishing”. Then it was taken to Europe and transformed into milk chocolate. In Mexico, cacao wasn't accessible to everyone; it was a divine food, always present in ceremonies: weddings, funerals, all kinds of rituals.'

But the beneficial qualities of cacao have largely been lost to time following the Spanish conquest of the Americas. ‘Cacao became a sweet treat that, in modern times, even became something that carried shame – it’ll give you spots, it’ll make you gain weight, it’s bad for you. [There is] this whole taboo around chocolate, when actually, at its core, it's so healthy; we just changed it into something unhealthy by processing it.’

When unprocessed, cacao is one of the most nutritionally dense foods in the world, with more antioxidants than blueberries and containing a compound that can aid weight loss, phenylethylamine (the same molecule your brain releases when you fall in love). It also contains anandamide, which activates the same receptors in the brain that produce cannabinoids for relaxation (it is known as the ‘bliss molecule’).

María Cacao just opened up its first storefront in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighbourhood, where customers can purchase its cacao products and taste a full cacao menu in a candlelit space. The products are also now available to purchase in London thanks to Vickie Biggs, who retails the cacao blocks and flavoured cacao pods from The Dream Of, an east London holistic healing studio that is a Wallpaper* favourite. Together, Biggs and Cobar are working to get cacao retailed in more locations around the UK, and to make ‘people realise that cacao is not only for wellness obsessives’, says Cobar. ‘Hopefully, one day, [it will be] the norm to enter spaces where instead of having wine or coffee, you’re having cacao, and [we’ll see] what conversations arise from this heart-opening medicine.’

At The Dream Of, Biggs has converted many of her clients – who include Yasmin Sewell, founder of Vyrao; make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench; and Alex Brownsell, hairstylist and founder of Bleach London – to replace their morning coffee with cacao. ‘I tried María’s cacao, and I've tried hundreds [of examples], and was immediately blown away; I knew I needed it in the shop,’ says Biggs.

‘As cacao becomes more popular, and I do think it will eventually be the new matcha, there's a real responsibility around how it's sourced and who profits from it. There's been a big influx of white-owned cacao brands. For me, people with platforms must support those who are genuinely connected to where cacao is from. Maria being Mexican, having a fully female Mexican team, working closely with farmers in Tabasco – that matters enormously. The product literally comes from that place of care and connection. You can taste it.’

mariacacao.mx

The birth of La Hacienda shows that even the most sprawling ambitions call for flexibility. What began in 2016 as a selection process among architecture firms based in Guadalajara, Mexico, to design a large-scale, holistic complex for distillation, ceramic production, and an experience centre for Clase Azul México tequila in the country's Jalisco state, took a markedly different turn. 'You don't have a competition - you have a team,' architect Alejandro Guerrero of Atelier ARS recalls stating to Clase Azul founder and CEO Arturo Lomelí.

What followed was anything but simple, but the process of engaging five prominent local firms to each create a part of the campus on a previously undeveloped, nearly 22-hectare site in the area known as Los Altos de Jalisco yielded a distinctive yet cohesive result that was recently opened to the public by reservation. Simultaneously ancient and contemporary, La Hacienda introduces a new chapter in Mexican modernism and spirits hospitality.

Discover the architecture at La Hacienda by Clase Azul

'We had total freedom on the part of the client, because he knew that we as architects shared the vision,' Guerrero adds. Certain common values and themes emerged to lay the groundwork for the technically demanding effort, composed of multiple buildings that function independently yet are part of a whole. Immersive tequila adventures aren't unfamiliar to the brand; in February, Clase Azul opened Casa de Los Leones in Mexico City's Polanco neighbourhood with an art- and design-centric focus and a bespoke experience for tequila enthusiasts and collectors. But La Hacienda, where construction began in 2017, became a testing ground, as well as what Andrea Soto of Atelier ARS calls 'a learning experience for everyone.'

Each firm took on an assignment that, for all the designers engaging with it, presented fresh challenges in terra incognita. The welcome pavilion, bottling plant and nave, and landscape architecture are by Atelier ARS; the visitors' centre is by Elías Rizo Arquitectos; the distillery and ceramic production spaces are by Estudio Macías Peredo; the dining areas, including OYA restaurant, are by Tacher Arquitectos; and the technical and production system facilities are by Huber Design Studio.

La Hacienda's master plan and subsequent steps began with a fundamental respect for the land and traditions. Guerrero explains that 'the whole idea was to have the architecture transmit this artisanal knowledge' of all elements - from the process of construction itself to Clase Azul's signature handmade ceramic bottles, which the company largely relocated from Puebla, Mexico, to the new headquarters. 'The materials that we wanted to use had to be linked and feel anchored to the region, but also to artisanal craftsmanship,' Guerrero says.

Instead of a set of fixed guidelines and rules, the site itself was a grounding, orienting element that established a shared material vocabulary and functioned as a collaborator. The newly formed de facto design collective then embarked upon what architect Diego Quirarte of Estudio Macías Peredo describes as 'a reading of the place. We realised at the beginning stages that it would be very complicated having an architectural form or language for all the different components, so the material became the line that would stitch together all the projects,' he notes.

The structures integrate old and new in startling ways. Estudio Macías Peredo's distillery and ceramic production areas are composed of a network of hexagons, 'almost like a honeycomb,' Quirarte says, to contain and then link the multiple functions. Using a concrete mix incorporating reddish-hued elements from the site itself, the lower exterior walls transition from earth to building, emphasising its connection to place. Volcanic stone makes appearances throughout La Hacienda, too (meanwhile Estudio Macías Peredo's working materials related to the project have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York).

The tequila factory integrates the terrain's slope to accommodate massive tanks at lower levels, with elevated walkways that are at grade with adjoining parts of the property. Soaring interior spaces with clerestory windows positioned above the walls to mitigate extreme temperatures create a cathedral-like atmosphere, while operable windows and doors in other areas provide access to courtyards and passages inspired by traditional Mexican town plazas and passageways. 'The important part was trying to create a space that is meant not just for machinery, but for human beings,' Quirarte elaborates.

The result is a highly technically capable exercise in compelling dualities. 'There is a tension between two architectural languages,' observes architect Salvador Macías of Estudio Macías Peredo. 'That is like a link between ancestral and industrial, between the mass and lightness, and I think that this is the energy of this project.' Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, the welcoming pavilion by Atelier ARS relies on a subtle show-don't-tell approach. 'We wanted to provide certain experiences through the objects,' Andrea Soto of Atelier ARS says. Instead of relying on extensive wall text, sensitive presentation in an already rich context 'communicates that these objects belong to this architecture. It is a feeling.'

The surrounding coarse, diverse ecology is equally significant and informative for La Hacienda at both macro and micro levels. 'The landscape unifies everything,' Soto says. 'We wanted to expose people wandering all over the place to understand how this landscape is, and why you can find a certain kind of architecture in this place that you can't really find in other places.' Habitat restoration, where boulders are left undisturbed and young native plants are added, was another objective - not resort-like perfection.

Soto shares how a project horticulturalist, Juan Montaño, whom the team came to call the 'maestro,' describes the particular dynamics of respecting nature's timeline. 'The magic will be to see it change and evolve through time.'

Approximately four-and-a-half and seven-hour La Hacienda experiences can be booked online

At Wallpaper*, we love spotlighting incredible homes from every corner of the globe that span the spectrum of modern design.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we present our monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will feature our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, design excellence.

This month, we head to Mexico, North London and Norway, to name but a few, to visit several homes that are doing things differently.

Join us on our world tour as we highlight the best houses of May 2026.

An urban retreat in Mexico

Architect Taller Segovia Molina designed this family home in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, as a pocket of calm in an urban environment. Its street-facing facade is almost hermetic, giving nothing away, while the interior opens onto a rear courtyard garden. Inside spaces flow across levels connected visually and acoustically, with a barrel-vaulted staircase leading to private upper floors. Natural light, seasonal change and views of greenery anchor residents to nature despite the dense surrounding neighbourhood.

A reimagined care home

Formwork Architects transformed a dilapidated Edwardian care home in north London back into a generous family residence. Substantial basement excavations created a new kitchen-diner opening onto a sunken courtyard, topped by a bespoke open-tread metal staircase leading to a sitting room above. Original features – namely the stained glass and impressive main staircase – were carefully restored, while a double-height rear extension and new rooflights flood the interior with light.

A Viking-inspired cabin

This coastal cabin in Norway draws on Viking boat-building traditions, using whole tree trunks and roots as structural columns that simultaneously serve as shelves, benches, stairs and room dividers. Helen & Hard designed the undulating roof to mirror the surrounding topography, while panoramic glazing frames the ocean and locally-sourced stone forms the base. The result is a sensory space where timber scent, sea sounds and shifting daylight become central to the experience.

Brutalism in Milan

This brutalist family home in Cusano Milanino, designed in the 1970s by Francesco Castiglioni, stands apart from its Art Nouveau suburban neighbours through its raw concrete construction and sculptural massing. A monumental double-height living room dominates, with a sloping ceiling, dramatic internal ramp and double-sided fireplace. Glazed walls connect to expansive gardens, covered loggias wrap the exterior, and a 20-metre basement pool sits below. Owned by the original family, it is now listed for sale.

An Albuquerque desert home

Antoine Predock's final residential project – nicknamed the ‘dinodactyl’ – is a low-slung concrete home perched on a New Mexico desert ridge with extraordinary eastward views across the badlands. Five bedroom suites radiate from a central ‘amphitheatre’ living space, each functioning as a self-contained casita with its own terrace and fire pit. The building's orientation and form were carefully calibrated against extreme temperature swings, high winds and intense sunlight, while steel roof shingles will patinate naturally into the landscape over time.

A renovated painter’s house

Atelier Vens Vanbelle renovated this former home and studio of Belgian painter Antoon De Clerck, situated between Bruges and Ghent, into a vibrant residence befitting its artistic provenance. Drawing on De Clerck's De Stijl-rooted palette of primary colours and clean geometry, the architects layered Bauhaus and midcentury aesthetics with contemporary touches, including metallic roof detailing and a white brick fireplace. Each room carries its own distinct character within a cohesive whole.

Tetris-like Oaxaca apartments

S-AR's three-storey apartment building in Puerto Escondido treats its concrete, wood and steel grid structure as an inhabitable spatial system. Each of the three 180-square-metre apartments occupies one floor, with translucent wooden boxes providing bedroom privacy within an otherwise open framework. Each unit includes two bedrooms, social areas and a private plunge pool, with geometric detailing punctuating stairs, kitchens and storage, and few external walls interrupting the connection to the surrounding jungle canopy.

An off-grid, on-the-market home 

This off-grid prefab home in California's Eastern Sierra, designed by Linda Taalman and built over eight years by its owners, embodies the architect's desert modernism ethos, comprising open glass-and-steel forms, modular construction and minimal site disturbance. Set between Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada, the house frames sweeping vistas of surrounding peaks, including Lone Pine Peak and the Alabama Hills. Its sustainable design, wildfire preparedness and connection to the landscape reflect both the Taalman's principles and the clients' family ties to the region.

A forgotten Portuguese ruin

Pablo Pita Arquitectos rebuilt a derelict olive press in the Douro wine region into a pared-back country retreat, preserving the original footprint while dividing the plan into four quadrants – living, terrace, pool and courtyard. The house steps down the hillside, with raw concrete interiors paired with stone schist walls and timber cladding – it is deliberately minimal, material-led and rooted in the ruin's memory. Four bedrooms occupy the lowest level, while the uppermost floor offers views across the Douro River.

A robust coastal home

Hollaway Studio reimagined an existing cottage on Kent's otherworldly shingle headland, retaining its original silhouette while completely rethinking its interior orientation. Charred timber with white coating echoes the previous building, complemented by corrugated metal and Corten steel, while a salt-and-pepper concrete floor extends the shingle landscape indoors. The robust facade is built to withstand the coastal exposure of one of England's most distinctive – and challenging – landscapes.

How to build a Mexican home on an in-between space, where the urban sprawl of San Luis Potosí meets the arid landscape of the Altiplano? To create Casa Eco, a private residence making the most of its unique setting, local firm Sensacional Dinámica Mexicana (SDM) decided to bring down an existing wall on site that once separated the city and the plateau.

Step inside this desert Mexican home

Set between the edge of the Sierra de San Miguelito and a residential area, the plot was dotted with large existing rock formations. Rather than the old wall, it is this stunning geology that now forms a natural boundary for the new structure, with which the architects aimed to celebrate the terrain and natural environment rather than erase or ‘colonise’ it.

The replacement of the traditional signs of human-made enclosure with ‘a natural threshold founded on respect, ecological integrity and coexistence’ challenged the local construction regulations, and adjacent common land, say the architects, led by SDM founder Sergio Padilla. ‘The rocks now operate as the project’s perceptual structure: they delimit, orient, contain, and establish a direct relationship between the house and the mineral memory of the site.’

One rock also supports one of the new house’s concrete walls, which rises to form a frame for the surrounding landscape. It is part of a series of exposed concrete volumes that echo the site’s geology: ‘The volumes are organised, stacked, and counterbalanced; masses held in equilibrium that evoke the logic of the surrounding rock formations,’ say the architects.

These stacked volumes embrace the sloping site to create a garage and cellar topped by a large ground floor with a study and spacious living space and kitchen. The latter comes with a long counter integrating a large rock. It continues outside to form an outdoor kitchen worktop supported by a boulder. The floor-to-ceiling windows open onto a courtyard with a small pool, the rock formations composing a stunning natural backdrop.

Upstairs are two further floors housing three bedrooms, two bathrooms (with concrete walls rather than tiles), a TV lounge and a dressing room. Solid oak details and handmade pieces of furniture and joinery add warmth to the minimalist interiors throughout, while light flows into the space through carefully positioned openings.

‘The interior unfolds as a sequence of sheltered spaces opened toward the landscape, generating a system of chiaroscuro that continuously transforms the perception of space,’ write the architects. ‘In the private areas, openings are strategic, facing east and south in a cave-like condition with limited apertures that temper the harsh sunlight of the plateau.’

The light also reveals the different textures of the concrete construction, created by the imprint of three types of timber. There are vertical pine planks sandblasted to highlight their natural grain; smooth horizontal formwork; and diagonal sections designed to evoke the region’s local órganos cactus.

A row of actual cacti forms a natural boundary on one side of the residence’s courtyard, while other local plants such as mesquite trees and desert palms are incorporated naturally throughout the space, symbolically extending the Sierra into the design. To the east, another organic border is provided by a seasonal stream that carries runoff from the surrounding hills during the rainy season.

‘The landscape operates as an active boundary and an extension of the interior space, integrating into the everyday experience of inhabitation,’ says the SDM team. ‘The site itself becomes an inhabitant of the house rather than an external backdrop. To inhabit the house is to inhabit the territory – a fundamental principle within the studio’s architectural practice.’

Sober and rigorous, the design lets the surrounding environment take the lead. ‘The result is an architecture that, through its silence, does not impose order upon the landscape,’ hope its architects.

sensacionaldinamica.mx

This urban refuge set in a dense residential neighbourhood of Santiago de Querétaro, in central Mexico, is a home conceived to provide shelter and relaxation. The project, by architecture practice Taller Segovia Molina, is located in a populated suburb of the state capital – yet within the home, you would never guess its busy context, for its design was masterfully crafted to envelope its residents in an atmosphere that feels a lot more secluded than its geography might imply.

Tour this Mexican home designed as an urban refuge

The clever design prepares the visitor to leave the outside world behind as they enter the home's inner world. 'From the street, the house appears as a contained, almost hermetic, volume that shelters its interior and creates an atmosphere of calm from the very first moment,' the architects explain.

The home of a family, this 250 sq m refuge unfolds as an open, flowing living space on the ground level, leading out to an open-air courtyard at the rear of the plot. The open space serves as an urban garden, and views are oriented away from the street and towards this serene green patch, lit from above, the sunlight changing throughout the day.

A staircase, smoothly enclosed within a barrel vault structure, leads up to the bedrooms and family bathrooms. Meanwhile, the primary bedroom suite occupies the entire topmost floor. All spaces here were designed to be intimate but open up towards the courtyard's green views, offering both opportunities for contemplation and the chance to follow the sun's path, supporting the residents' natural circadian rhythm and life.

This balance with nature within the urban environment of the home was an important element in the design development, the architects highlight: 'Casa Refugio embodies a philosophy of living in harmony with the passage of time. It is a dwelling that evolves and adapts to life's moments, whether it's the time of day or the season of the year. This sensitivity also extends to the relationship with the landscape, which is present throughout the home via courtyards, contained gardens, and voids that bring nature closer.

'The house is designed so that the levels remain connected visually, acoustically, and through daily presence. This allows domestic life to remain present between one space and another, ensuring that the levels do not become separate worlds.'

tallersegoviamolina.com

With their grid-like structure spanning across three storeys, these Oaxaca apartments are defined by their open social areas. The building, titled Casa Eva, is divided into three residential units, one per level, made of concrete, wood and steel, balancing a range of hard and soft materiality. Nestled on a sloping plot in the surf town of Puerto Escondido on Mexico's west coast, the apartment building, designed by Mexican architecture firm S-AR, establishes a definitive relationship with its context of mountains, tree canopies and the sea in the distance.

Tour these grid-like Oaxaca apartments

‘For us, the site is a large part of the project,’ explains studio founders, César Guerrero and Ana Cecilia Garza. ‘In this case, the coastal climate, the existing lush vegetation and the topography of the land were the initial conditions that informed the project. Then, the idea was to create a seemingly compact piece of architecture, but one that would actually be a system where the structure defines open spaces, which would then be "inhabited" by volumes that, in turn, define dimensions, circulation, and public and private areas. It's like a game of filling a spatial grid.’

The transparency of this grid leaves the homes open to their surroundings, with few walls limiting space and views on the outer layer of the structure. This creates a seamless transition between interior and exterior, ultimately achieving a sense of boundlessness for its generous residential spaces.

The foundation and framework behind this thinking is rooted in a system of cast-in-place reinforced concrete columns, beams and slabs. To create divisions between spaces, the firm used railings and translucent lattice 'wooden boxes' that provide privacy for the bedrooms. It is this relationship between open and enclosed areas, forms and geometric features that helps carve discrete spaces – and it was one of the team's main aims.

‘It allows us to consider that architecture can be other things and provokes people to think. That is to say, although there are hundreds of buildings with similar programs and palapa roofs in the region, we believe that this one is simply not like the others, but rather something that can spark new dialogues and interpretations both of the architectural object itself and of its potential relationship with the environment.'

Each apartment spans 180 square metres and includes two bedrooms, service areas, and social spaces, each complemented by a private plunge pool for cooling off. Geometric elements are scattered throughout the design, providing visual accents and appearing on stairs, pools, kitchens and storage spaces.

For the architects, the most important element of the design was to create freedom and connection with the environment. They conclude: ‘Each apartment relates differently to its immediate natural surroundings, and although each offers a unique experience, the common thread is freedom and connection. Next, we expect attention to detail and the textures of the materials. These are simple yet refined and sophisticated elements, enhanced by light and shadow, by time.’

s-ar.mx

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of April 2026.

A coastal Florida home

Architect Jennifer Bonner designed this Florida home for her mother, working within strict Homeowners Association rules that demanded a traditional material palette and symmetrical façade. To get around this, Bonner redirected her creativity to the roofline, introducing daring curvilinear eaves with soft pink undersides, while two false-front porches satisfy the symmetry requirement and corrugated metal is cheekily repurposed on the façade. Interiors by Carol Mockbee carry the theme through, with custom furnishings, terrazzo floors and ombré walls mirroring the exterior's curves.

Read about it here.

A pyramid-shaped house

Built in 1981 as part of Milton Keynes' Homeworld exhibition, the Pyramid House was a bold experiment in future residential design. London studio Khan Bonshek recently overhauled its confused layout, installing a spectacular new birch ply staircase as the home's centrepiece. Light cascades from the glazed apex, animating every room. Eaves were repurposed as sleeping pods, a sauna and workspace, while ground source heat pumps replaced the original inefficient ventilation. The result is eccentric, energy-efficient and far more liveable.

Read about it here.

A curved concrete villa 

Belgian architect Magalie Munters designed this concrete villa in Oostduinkerke, which is shaped by dunes, wind and light rather than conventional façade logic. Bedrooms are half-buried in the dunes while the living space rises toward the horizon. Striated concrete recalls sand at low tide, and interiors feature lime-washed walls, built-in concrete elements and sandblasted oak furniture – creating rooms that feel carved from a single continuous material body.

Read about it here.

Modernism in West Yorkshire

Designed in 1954 as a wedding gift for his brother, Peter Womersley's Farnley Hey is one of Britain's most celebrated modernist homes, and it’s now on the market for £1.05 million. Drawing on Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, Womersley created something strikingly un-English – at the time, the flat roofs, floor-to-ceiling glazing and open-plan interiors were more akin to California than the Pennines. Camphorwood floors, York stone and lemon-yellow Formica panels add warmth, while a double-height reception room – known as ‘the dance floor’ – comprises the heart of the home.

Read about it here.

An Ontario home in the trees

Perched on a forested bluff above Lake Huron, Cedar's Kin is a sprawling 5,000 sq ft residence by Omar Gandhi Architects. Three interconnected pavilions, a guest cabin and a beach hut are threaded through the treeline, each rotated to align with gaps in the canopy and maximise lake views. To further harmonise the building with its wooded surroundings, careful planning preserved existing trees and minimised erosion, while eastern white cedar clads the exterior and white oak joinery warms the interiors.

Read about it here.

A Japanese home in London

Hagen Hall transformed this Grade II-listed Islington terrace house for a couple with ties to Japan – this connection is felt in a singular material palette of oak joinery and wall panelling and a genkan entryway, shoji-inspired glass shelving and a tokonoma-style display niche. A sunken garden dining room and moody snug complete a home that balances late-Georgian heritage with rigorous contemporary minimalism.

Read about it here.

An abandoned home revived

No Architects revived an abandoned structure in the Czech Ore Mountains – a region emptied after post-war expulsions – and transformed it into robust holiday accommodation. The studio stripped back decades of additions, burying what didn't fit and connecting the restored original farmhouse to an overhauled structure via a single-storey link. Ground source heating, a new well and remote-controlled systems ensure resilience against the brutal Czech winters, while white-painted walls, timber, terrazzo and steel roofing create a gleaming, hardwearing retreat.

Read about it here.

A Mexican brutalist villa

Casa Macahuite, a brutalist villa in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, by Studio Font, sits between ocean and mountains, accessible only by bridge over a lagoon. Designed to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes, the 300 sq m off-grid home features five structural planes and a 14-metre cantilevered pergola that shades, frames views and ventilates. Softened by parota wood, textiles and native planting, the residence blurs indoor and outdoor living – it even overlooks a protected turtle nesting beach.

Read about it here.

A boulder-supported guesthouse 

This serene guesthouse in Columbia County, perched atop glacial boulders sourced from within a 35-mile radius, is the work of Brooklyn studio Of Possible. Guests enter the sub-1,000 sq ft, timber-clad structure from beneath, ascending a staircase as the building wraps around them. Inside, two snug bedrooms, a serpentine marble kitchen island and carefully chosen vintage furniture create a warm, Scandinavian-inflected atmosphere.

Read about it here.

A serene Indian home

On the edge of Theni city in Tamil Nadu, oriented toward a nearby valley and lake, STO.M.P designed this calm, linear home. Three horizontal bands of varying texture and openness correspond to the home's functions: communal spaces at ground level, bedrooms above and a gym and suite at the top. Warm timber surfaces blend with brass detailing and bold colour accents, creating a layered journey which blurs the boundaries between interior and landscape.

Read about it here.

Imagine a brutalist Mexican villa accessible only by a quaint bridge over a turquoise lagoon, across from a beach which is home to nesting turtles and small hatchlings. Who could ask for a better neighbour? Welcome to Casa Macahuite, a new house nestled in an isolated territory and named after the protected turtle beach.

Tour Casa Macahuite, a tropical brutalist Mexican villa

Located in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, the residence designed by Studio Font sounds like a whimsical abode, one equipped for ocean lovers. However, the environment is harsh. The ocean is rough, the climate is hot, and the area is susceptible to earthquakes, hurricanes, and daily storms during the rainy season. This informed the material and site of the project.

‘The landscape was a central reference from the beginning,’ says Raquel Font, founder of the architecture studio. 'The project is located between the ocean and the mountains, and the intention was to ensure that every space maintains a direct relationship with both, allowing it to be experienced continuously.’

The 300 sq m home is positioned alongside a ring of existing vegetation, which makes a natural courtyard. With its expansive views, Font made sure the residence remained open in all directions. In this context, the architecture works more as a framework than an enclosure.

Composed of five main planes – four vertical walls, and a floating pergola– the residence allows for shade, natural ventilation and unobstructed views. Font notes that the central pergola is probably the most significant element in the project. It spans fourteen metres without intermediate supports and connects the two main volumes, becoming both the entrance and the main living space.

She says: ‘It is where the structural logic of the house is most evident: it provides shade, frames views, and allows air to circulate freely. By relying on the foundations of the walls to support the span, the solution is condensed into a single gesture, reducing the building’s footprint while integrating structure, climate and daily use.’

The fully off-grid home is a softer example of Mexican brutalism. Its solid grey concrete walls are warmed through the use of wood and textiles. Furniture in parota wood, and Phenolic wall finishes provide an unexpected gentleness to the space. Accessorised with hanging plants and an abundance of native vegetation, the building fuses with its context.

Font concludes: ’The intention was to create a sense of being both isolated and protected – a place where you feel privileged by the views, but also comfortable enough to inhabit throughout the day. Rather than a conventional interior, the project proposes a more open spatial experience, where visitors become aware of shade, wind and time as part of the space, allowing inhabitation to remain continuously connected to the outdoors.’

studio.font

Elevate your everyday moments with ‘Prea’, a new collection from Mexican contemporary furniture brand Dórica. The collection was conceived by designer and brand founder Sebastián Ángeles, who wanted to focus on the beauty of daily rituals and how to enhance the experience.

Discover 'Prea', objects designed for intentional living

Ángeles focused on how to create a conscious relationship with the domestic environment with objects that balance form and function. ‘Prea’ consists of eight pieces, including candleholders, trays, containers, egg baskets and vessels, each crafted in stoneware and available in five colours: Forest Green, Wine Red, Butter Yellow, Electric Blue, and Peach.

The underlying theme is simplicity, as Ángeles wanted each piece to integrate easily into any space, in keeping with the brand’s minimalistic and contemporary aesthetic.

Ángeles founded Dórica as a project back in 2016, and it blossomed into one of Mexico’s most notable furniture brands. Each piece is designed and manufactured in Mexico, with a focus on the beauty of wood – adding contemporary lines and a minimalist touch.

The designer didn’t want the objects of his new collection to define a room, but instead to accompany a daily ritual, bringing small joy to the lighting of a candle or the cracking an egg.

Ángeles chose the name ‘Prea’ as a personal way to name ‘the everyday ritual’ – one which users should take a moment to savour and enjoy.

The collection is priced from MXN $599 to $1699 at dorica.com.mx

Fundación Casa Wabi's Mushroom Pavilion is not only the latest addition to the growing art-and-community-led campus in Mexico's Puerto Escondido, founded by artist Bosco Sodi – it is also, astonishingly, OMA's first completed project in the country. Led by the prolific and celebrated Dutch studio's New York office and partner-in-charge Shohei Shigematsu, the project has just been revealed and does what it says on the tin – its simple, ellipsoidal form has been optimised for the growing of mushrooms.

Explore Casa Wabi's Mushroom Pavilion by OMA

Inside the Mushroom Pavilion's clean volume lies a domed interior. This is divided into three areas – and respective parts of fungi growing: fruiting room, incubation room, and storage. These parts wrap around a central space that was conceived as a hub for gathering and acts as a mini auditorium for the Casa Wabi campus. An oculus at its very top brings light into the centre of the pavilion, illuminating its social activities.

Combining nourishment and community, this is a structure with multiple purposes and layered usage. There are handmade terracotta mushroom pots crafted by local artisans on the structure's stepped base and a concrete shell made of trowelled and poured-in-place concrete (the exterior is burlap-stamped so that it retains the site’s high-iron-content water for mushroom growing). This ensures fungi, people and natural elements come together in a single design, which effortlessly connects with all aspects of its concept.

'Working with Bosco Sodi and Fundacion Casa Wabi, we conceived a pavilion for the very specific function of mushroom cultivation while offering a space for people to come together. The result is an incubator of both food and community that’s spatially fit to support all types of activities for the locals, visitors, and the foundation. As a Japanese architect, it was especially meaningful to contribute an art campus guided by Japanese philosophy and spatial traditions,' says Shigematsu.

oma.com

casawabi.org

On the outskirts of Mexico City, Luis Barragán’s pink modernist icon La Cuadra has just welcomed its first exhibition dedicated to the revered architect, having started a new chapter as a cultural hub last year. The retrospective, a permanent show staged within arguably the most well-known of the Mexican modernist's masterpieces – an estate originally completed between 1966 and 1968 – journeys through Barragán’s famous designs, going back to his early beginnings. Viewers will clearly see how he developed his architectural language and evolved with each project.

'Barragán en Barragán' at La Cuadra

The retrospective, titled 'Barragán en Barragán,' is curated by architect Jorge Covarrubias and is the first exhibition produced by Mexicans about Luis Barragán. Visitors will see scale models (produced by Fernando Romero studio), coupled with photographs by Yukio Futagawa, René Burri, and Armando Salas Portugal.

There are also contributions from artists in Barragán’s close circle, including Chucho Reyes’ delicate, pop-culture-inspired work, and dramatic, rocky landscapes by Doctor Atl (Gerardo Murillo).

The exhibition explores how Barragán merged tradition and modern principles, as well as adding intricate landscaping, which is seen in Casa Gálvez, the Luis Barragán House and Studio, the Convent of the Capuchinas, and, of course, La Cuadra.

The preservation of La Cuadra is a feat in itself. In Mexico, most efforts are focused on maintaining archaeological sites and Spanish Colonial buildings. Many 20th-century works of architecture face an uncertain fate. Last year, Fundación Fernando Romero launched an initiative in Mexico City to protect Barragán’s work.

‘The singularity is to celebrate Luis Barragán inside one of [his] masterpieces. This exhibition centres on the evolution of his work, from modern generic buildings, to the development of his own language that enables him to develop a collection of masterpieces,’ says the foundation’s founder, architect and design curator Fernando Romero.

'Barragán en Barragán' formally inaugurates La Cuadra’s public programming, firmly announcing itself as a new location to celebrate Latin American design, sitting confidently at the intersection between architecture and art.

lacuadrabarragan.org

Mexican airline Aeroméxico has unveiled a stylish new collection of in-flight crockery inspired by modern Mexico. It’s designed by Newterritory, which has studios in London, UK and Atlanta, US, and has been working with the airline for ten years.

The previous business class tableware – no-nonsense, functional pieces of China and glazed porcelain – has been replaced with more than 15 new pieces, including plates, bowls, glasses and mugs.

Aeroméxico introduces new dinnerware

Porcelain pieces are intended as a nod to the country’s traditional ceramics, drawing on the reds of terracotta and the blacks of Oaxacan clay. The idea is that their irregular forms celebrate craft rather than perfection. And the blue-tinted glassware with its little air bubbles should remind passengers of tequila bottles, which are typically made from recycled glass.

Newterritory combined these lightweight materials with space-saving designs to ease the crew’s workload and help reduce weight – an all-important consideration for anything going into an aircraft.

‘We developed a clear design language, including a subtle sculptural plinth, which allows the pieces to nest efficiently,’ says Newterritory’s Nadja Orwell. Even the salt and pepper shakers are stackable, and the plates are shallower, again helping to make them lighter and more compact.

The new tableware, which rolls out across the airline’s Boeing 787 fleet this year, follows on from the 90-year-old airline’s cabin interiors upgrade – also by NewTerritory – its tweaked branding in 2023, and its new uniforms. These were created by the Mexican brand Yakampot, led by designer Concepción Orvañanos, and feature handcrafted embroidery sewn by more than 230 Chiapas craftswomen.

Next up for Aeroméxico is a new Business Economy class, rolling out from late 2027. ‘As part of our ongoing ten-year partnership, we look forward to continuing to transform the brand experience and onboard signature moments in due course,’ says Orwell.

aeromexico.com

With concrete famously responsible for a considerable chunk of the construction industry's carbon emissions, it's no wonder that the restless minds of the architecture world have embarked on finding its replacement. From biomaterials to Seratech's innovative carbon-neutral cement composite, options have been increasing. Now entering the game is Corncretl, the new bio-based material alternative from Mexico, using corn.

What is Corncretl?

Developed as a research project by Mexico-based studio Manufactura, led by Dinorah Schulte, who founded the practice in 2022, Corncretl combines architectural thinking and local cultural heritage. The new material is composed of limestone derivatives, corn, and recycled nejayote, which is a calcium-rich byproduct of Mexico’s nixtamalization process (the ancient Mesoamerican process of soaking and cooking corn).

The process not only uses nejayote, an abundant agricultural waste, recycling it, but it also speaks to the local community and heritage in Mexico, where corn has been a cornerstone of civilisation for millennia.

Manufactura writes: 'Beyond its nutritional value, corn held deep spiritual meaning. In Aztec mythology, Cintéotl – the “ear of corn” deity – was the son of Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacíhuatl, gods of fertility and abundance. Rituals in his honour reinforced community bonds and collective labour, essential for corn production.'

The corn and corn-processing matter are mixed with Geocalce T, a mineral aggregate composed of certified natural lime. As a result of its smart raw material mix, Corncretl manages a whopping 70 per cent reduction in carbon emissions compared to conventional concrete.

To create the first 3D printed prototype using Corncretl, Manufactura looked to Europe. They worked with chef Jorge Armando of Taco Kween in Berlin to acquire nixtamal waste product, which was then transported to Italy. Once the material was ground to fine particles of uniform consistency, the powder was blended with organic binders.

The resulting composition was fed through a printer at Massa Lombarda's 3D Wasp, the 3D printing specialist for equipment that can create products in bioplastic, clay, and more. Making the most of existing waste products and producing minimal waste itself, Corncretl achieves a 90 per cent reduction in unwanted production matter compared to the typical, traditional construction method.

Manufactura concludes: 'Corncretl envisions a future where ancestral wisdom and digital innovation merge to reshape the foundations of construction. By reviving pre-Hispanic materials and techniques through the lens of modern fabrication and circular economy principles, this project transcends conventional building practices. It aims to create spaces that reduce environmental impact while honouring cultural memory and empowering communities.'

3dwasp.com

@manufacturamx

Mexico City Art Week, held every February, is also an opportunity to discover design. The primary art fair, Zona Maco, has hosted a design-focused section for 15 years; the nomadic, contemporary design-focused Unique Design X fair has been staged in the city since 2024; and around the leafy, bustling neighbourhoods of Mexico’s capital, collectible design galleries and young makers open their doors for special showcases.

A huge array of international design talent was present at this year’s Art Week (4-8 February) – from Lee Broom and Sabine Marcelis to Fernando Laposse and Panorammma – but we wanted to shine a spotlight on the exciting emerging designers from Mexico to keep an eye on. Here’s who to know.

Five emerging Mexican designers

Alan Aguilar Canela

Based in the city of Puebla, 27-year-old Alan Aguilar Canela creates furniture to shape ‘emotionally engaging’ spaces. ‘I’m interested in how objects can evoke feelings and subtly influence the atmosphere of the places where people live,’ says Canela. ‘Emotional design is central to my practice, and I aim to translate that sensitivity into functional pieces.’

His debut furniture collection, ‘A Deeper Void’, drew influence from Bauhaus geometry, reinterpreted through a contemporary Mexican lens. This resulted in tables comprising laminated glass circles, triangles and rectangles slotted together in vibrant blue, yellow and red hues.

His new collection, ‘Ikigai’ – which was presented at Zona Maco’s emerging design section this year – turns to crisp, industrial aluminium. Two bookshelves on wheels bring together straight and curved planes of the raw material, inspired by minimalist Japanese design.

Canela studied both industrial design and product design, and alongside his furniture work, he creates jewellery that allows him to realise ideas at a different scale. While he has exhibited at Zona Maco and Design Week Mexico, he hopes to present his work at design fairs outside of the country, expanding his practice globally.

Studio Lares

Established in Mexico City in 2024, Studio Lares is the vision of Mexican designer Natalia Laresgoiti, who developed her own collection of furniture and lighting after working in a prestigious interior design studio in New York.

‘Over time, I felt a strong pull to move from working within other people’s visions to designing pieces of my own,’ she says. ‘The studio emerged as a way to translate that experience into a more personal, focused practice – one centred on creating furniture that feels deliberate, enduring, and thoughtfully made.

‘Mexico felt like the natural place to establish the studio – not only personally, but creatively,’ she adds. ‘There is a deep culture of craftsmanship here, and I wanted to build something rooted in that tradition while maintaining a global perspective shaped by my years in New York.’

The studio’s first collection was launched in 2025 and features a deep-red ceramic-tiled bench, a walnut table integrated with an upholstered seat, a steel mirror with molten glass decoration, a walnut credenza, and an elegantly playful lamp. All were on show at Unique Design X Mexico City 2026, in a booth curated by Gaïa Matisse (a descendant of iconic French painter Henri Matisse).

As Laresgoiti explains, Studio Lares is rooted in ‘longevity’: ‘At a time when design has become increasingly trend-driven, I wanted to create pieces that resist that cycle – objects that feel relevant beyond a specific moment.’

Studio Multiply

Established by architects Ricardo Enriquez and Ricardo Valdés in 2024, Studio Multiply creates lighting and furniture that blend traditional techniques and crafts with industrial and contemporary processes. The duo are based in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, to the east of Mexico City, and showcased their ‘Luneta’ lamp this year at Zona Maco’s emerging design section.

‘Luneta’, a circular wall-mounted design resembling a glowing planet, uses a goldsmithing technique called ‘rechazado’, typically employed in antique brass candelabras, but is mounted on a 3D-printed frame.

Two table designs – ‘Vaaca’ and ‘Recinto’ – combine natural materials such as bovine leather and carved volcanic stone with rigid, minimalist stainless steel frames. The ‘Silla del Mandado’ armchair is a burst of colour and pattern, harnessing plastic raffia that is more commonly used for Mexican shopping bags – complete with plastic loop detailing recalling handles.

The columnar, touch-activated ‘Vitralita’ table lamp, meanwhile, uses leaded glass resembling historic stained-glass windows, set on an anodised aluminium base.

Following Zona Maco, Studio Multiply is looking ahead to exciting international plans, showing at Maison&Objet in Paris later in 2026, and at Salone Satellite in Milan next year.

Umaguma

Under the name Umaguma, Mexican-American designer and textile artist Yasmin Mora makes colourful, almost psychedelic rugs in organic shapes that command attention in any interior. She works with naturally dyed wool from the state of Oaxaca, crafting diverse textile works that aim to possess a sense of rhythm, cultural heritage and identity.

Having lived in both Mexico and the US, Mora believes Umaguma expresses the ‘duality of the cross-cultural experience – a Chicana identity woven between two worlds, two countries and two histories’. As she conceives her designs, she holds in her mind personal memories and collective experiences; as she describes it, ‘the colours and textures of pain, resilience, and liberation’.

With dynamic, curvy silhouettes resembling coral or spilled liquid, Umaguma’s rugs feature bright, swirling hues that entrance the viewer. During Mexico City Art Week, two such works were on show at ‘Forms in Suspension’, an exhibition at the collectible design gallery Toro Manifesto, which represents Mora and is a vital hub of emerging design in the Mexican capital.

Métamo Studio

Founded by Manuel Eduardo Peón Ceballos and Yadir Iván Chan Martín, two designers and friends from Mérida, Yucatán, Métamo Studio makes simple yet bold furniture in organic shapes. The duo established the studio in 2024 after running a woodworking shop together, and create furniture that ‘goes beyond functionality – these are pieces that engage in dialogue with space, that are meant to be felt and lived’, says Ceballos.

The characteristic curved and wiggling lines of their furniture reference the natural landscapes of Yucatán – such as the Costa Esmeralda, Pink Lagoon, and cenotes (natural sinkholes) – as well as elements of historic Mayan architecture and culture.

Métamo works with native hardwoods such as rosa morada and encino oak, letting the crafted pieces speak for themselves without additional decoration or detailing. The studio’s ‘Venus’ and ‘Marte’ chairs were displayed at the dedicated emerging design section of Zona Maco this year, but Métamo seems destined to rise into the spotlight.

Warning: Mexico Modern: Architecture and Interiors is likely to induce wanderlust. The new publication by Rizzoli, written by Tami Christiansen and featuring lashings of striking photography by Richard Powers, has just come out, taking readers on an architectural journey through some of the territory's finest modern architecture – both 20th-century and historical.

Flick through the pages of 'Mexico Modern'

Mexico has long been a hotbed of architectural activity – and remains to be so, as evidenced in our recent focus on emerging Mexican architects thinking outside the box and pushing the limits in their field. Some of these, and more, are featured in the pages of this book, which aims to chronicle groundbreaking architecture from Mexico – from modernist architecture marvels that we know and love, to new, pioneering works from practices active in the field today.

Powers tells Wallpaper* on his experience of shooting in the country and capturing its progressive and visually impressive architecture: 'The whole Mexico Modern project was borne out of COVID! Tami Christiansen contacted me, as she was living in Mexico at the time ... I had collaborated with her when I lived in Sydney, Australia, fifteen years previously.'

'Tami had sourced some incredible projects for us to shoot in Mexico City and Oaxaca. After the first trip, I was hooked and wanted to shoot more. The book idea developed during these trips as Tami and I travelled all over Mexico. Like many of my books, I like to give context to current design, so we shot older modernist projects as well - Barragan, Legoretta, Hernandez... All grand masters, but the current design culture in Mexico is also really exciting. Modern Mexican architecture is compelling because it’s built for light, shadow, and emotion.'

Diversity is the name of the game, here as Christiansen explores a variety of domestic typologies, from organic and small-scale dwellings Carlos H Matos' Casa Monte, to lavish, creative residences (think, the home of artist Pedro Reyes and his wife, fashion designer Carla Fernández in Mexico City) and experimental brutalist architecture sanctuaries - Casa Alferez, a fortress-like holiday home by Ludwig Godefroy and Agustín Hernández Navarro's modernist home Casa Praxis in Mexico City come to mind.

'I am particularly drawn to the brutalism and the amazing landscapes the houses are set in. For a photographer of architecture and interiors its nirvana! The Augustin Hernandez Praxis house is one of my favourites,' says Powers.

'Mexico Modern: Architecture and Interiors' is out 17 February 2026, $65.00, Rizzoli. Buy a copy from TG Jones or Blackwell's

British designer Lee Broom has filled a grand villa in Mexico City with more than 50 lighting works, creating an immersive experience of sculptural, theatrical illumination.

Opening to coincide with Mexico City Art Week, and lasting until 10 April 2026, ‘The Resident’ sees Broom’s designs installed throughout the rooms of a historic home belonging to Diez Company, a leading Mexican lighting design firm. Situated in the upscale neighbourhood of Polanco, the 1920s, three-storey villa has been transformed by Diez Company into an airy yet characterful showroom for the brand, as well as special design events like these.

The company, which has represented Broom’s brand in Mexico for many years, suggested the designer do a takeover of the villa. 'I thought it would be a really amazing opportunity to showcase my work,' says Broom, who carefully studied the setting in anticipation. 'I got a sense of the architecture of the building and what pieces I thought would resonate in what rooms. The idea was to create a fairly classic gallery presentation with a slight residential feel.'

The curated selection of works features works from the last 12 years, including the Hail chandelier, the Chant Portable Lamp, and pieces from the Requiem, Overture and Cascade series.

The Hail chandelier, newly crafted for the installation, cascades down the villa’s central atrium, an elegant array of glowing vertical lines against a grand, curved staircase.

Nearby, works from Broom’s Requiem series are hand-sculpted in plaster to resemble draped fabric. Poetic and intriguing, they gently trick the eye while inviting closer inspection. 'I love surrealist art and surrealism in general,' says Broom. He developed the technique behind the works when studying fashion at Central St Martins in London. 'I used to make corsetry and bodices out of plasterwork with fabric, and I wanted to revisit that with light fixtures,' he explains.

The art of trompe l’oeil and the motif of drapery is found also in the Overture collection, Broom’s first-ever wallpaper collaboration with Calico Wallpaper. Installed in a top-floor room overlooking the city, the work transforms the walls into theatrical yet restrained illusions, its visual cues blending surrealism with classical sculpture. As Broom explains, he was inspired by his background in theatre as a child actor. 'Some of my earliest memories are the scenography of the stage and the drapery – and the scenery that is painted to give that depth of field.“

Set against the atmospheric wallpaper are works from Cascade, Broom’s porcelain lighting series for Lladró, bringing a touch of Japanese modernism.

The recently launched Chant Portable Lamp – Broom’s first portable design – is found in a dramatic golden installation in the tiled bathroom, that Broom describes as 'nightclubbish'. A cube of hand-blown glass surrounds a glowing spherical lamp, all sitting on a base finished either in brushed gold, silver or bronze. The design, which draws inspiration from 1970s-era architectural glass blocks, provides a modernist counterpoint to the classically inspired details of the house.

In celebration of Mexico City Art Week, and the country’s rich creative culture, ‘The Resident’ also includes artworks by Mexican artists and designers, curated by Lee Broom to have 'resonance' with his own pieces. In the central atrium lies the geometric Amazones chair in travertine marble by local studio Ayres, its sculpted lines in dialogue with those of Broom’s wall-mounted square Pantheum light placed above.

A room with Broom’s large circular Aurora Ring chandelier is complemented by a hanging sculpture of celestially inspired concentric rings with marble fragments, by sculptor Karian Amaya. In another room, a geometric assemblage of Broom’s Orion lights plays off a solid wood and brass room divider by Simón Hamui.

It is Broom’s debut exhibition in Mexico, but one that feels a long time coming. As the designer explains: 'Although I’d never been to Mexico City before, I’ve been really inspired by it from afar – the architecture, the history of art, the materiality here.' Now, his works are in direct engagement with those inspirations.

The Resident by Lee Broom is on view until 10 April 2026

Campos Elíseos 136, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX

Dynamic and rich in heritage, nature and contemporary culture, Mexico is a thriving playground for architectural experimentation. A strong tradition of globally prominent architecture practice, much of it socially engaged – think Frida Escobedo, Gabriella Carillo, Tatiana Bilbao or Fernanda Canales – has paved the way for practitioners ready to challenge the status quo. It is not a country without problems. Socioeconomic divides, security concerns and the kinds of environmental worries shared across the globe mean there’s a lot of work to be done by the country’s new generation of architects, too.

Nine Mexican architecture studios shaking up the scene

Luckily, Mexico’s flourishing emerging architecture studios are ready for business – and even if they don’t have all the answers just yet, they come armed with a strong desire for change, trial and testing in order to produce designs that will help move the needle on all counts, in their home country and beyond.

Aidia Studio

Rolando Rodríguez-Leal and Natalia Wrzask met in London in 2006. Before establishing their own practice, Aidia Studio, in 2018, the Mexican-Polish couple worked at leading international firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects and Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Now, their designs aim to blend environmental considerations with form-finding exploration, balancing ambitious, eye-catching looks with sustainability concerns and a contextual take.

Palma

Founded in 2016, Palma is headed up by Ilse Cárdenas, Regina de Hoyos and Diego Escamilla, all graduates of the School of Architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Now with bases in Mexico City and Sayulita, the trio work fluidly across scales and typologies, leading a team of seven while placing agility, experimentation and a sense of restless curiosity at the core of their approach.

Locus

In 2023, the directors of Arca Tierra, an organic farm in southern Mexico City, approached Sana Frini and Jachen Schleich to design a space for their new restaurant Baldío that would reflect their zero-waste ethos. Frini and Schleich were thrilled. Over the previous three years, the architects had built their practice, Locus, around what Frini calls ‘eco-localism, which isn’t “ecological”, exactly, but comes from the ecosystem you’re in’ – environmental, but also material, creative and social.

Carlos H Matos

As a child growing up in Mexico City, Carlos Matos often spent time at the home of his grandfather, architect Ernesto Gómez Gallardo, in the affluent district of San Jerónimo. Built in the late 1970s, the brutalist Casa Möbius was ‘distanced from the idea of comfort, slightly dysfunctional’, recalls Matos. ‘Even the bathrooms were triangular. It was absurd.’ Despite its peculiar layout, the house also offered ‘spaces for every kind of interaction’. It was a habitable provocation, prodding at what Matos calls ‘the boundaries between architecture and sculpture.’ That boundary – blurred, possibly obsolete – has been central to his practice ever since.

Rodríguez + De Mitri

Alessandra de Mitri started out studying architecture at the UK’s Oxford Brookes University, but felt disheartened by the programme. She sought a more experiential approach, one that treated space not merely as structure but as a medium for lived experience. This led her to Switzerland’s Mendrisio Academy, where the curriculum focused on phenomenology, emotional resonance and sensory perception. Here she met Roberto Rodríguez, an architect from Mexico City who had arrived at Mendrisio driven by a curiosity that mirrored her own.

Office of Urban Resilience (ORU)

Current members of Office of Urban Resilience, Elena Tudela, Victor Rico and Adriana Chávez, were working toward their master’s degrees at the Harvard Graduate School of Design when they heard about an open call from the Rockefeller Foundation for a project called 100 Resilient Cities. Raised in Mexico City, the trio immediately thought of their geologically unstable hometown as a perfect candidate for funding a comprehensive resiliency strategy.

RA!

‘Atmosphere is as important as function,’ declare the RA! team. It’s a statement that permeates the studio’s operation, and it is central to its ethos that recognises emotion to be as strong a power in architecture as technical performance. Co-founders Cristóbal Ramírez de Aguilar, Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar and Santiago Sierra explain: ‘We understand architecture as a sequence of spaces not as a static object, but as a transition.'

Barbapiña Arquitectos

Emerging in the Mexican city of Guadalajara around 1927 and strongly active until 1936, the Escuela Tapatía de Arquitectura was a movement that sought to forge a distinctly regional vein of modernism, favouring local materials and artisanal craft in response to the era’s preoccupation with industrial novelty and stylistic experimentation. Nearly a century later, local architects Laura Barba and Luis Aurelio Piña of Barbapiña Arquitectos cite that vision as a guiding principle of their practice. However, their devotion manifests in a contemporary interpretation of the ethos, adapted across diverse sites and programmes.

Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA)

‘At the core of our practice lies the idea that architecture should reveal, not impose,’ say the Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) team. ‘Each project begins with an understanding of its site, material, cultural and climatic conditions, and translates these into spatial experiences that feel inevitable and alive.' Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) is still a relatively young practice, yet it has grown in leaps and bounds since its foundation in 2018 by Pablo Pérez Palacios. A philosophy centred on sensitivity, balance and a deeply contextual understanding of each scheme sits at the heart of the studio’s work. This is also reflected in its make-up as the practice now operates as a collective of some 15 collaborators with key members including head of strategy Emilio Calvo Garza and interior designer Michelle Katrib.

A Mexican retreat, about 40 minutes west of the heaving megalopolis of Mexico City, brings sand-coloured brick curves into a dense pine forest flanked by a bustling highway. The structure, a family home titled Casa Jajalpa, designed by the Mexican practice Lanza atelier (newly announced as architects of the Serpentine Pavilion 2026) turns a blind wall to the endless sprawl of the city, opting instead to embrace the local landscape by domesticating a sliver of the forest.

Step inside this brick-clad Mexican retreat

The conceptual strength and clarity that have come to characterise the emerging studio’s work, which ranges from furniture to ephemeral pavilions and museum exhibition design, is present in the home’s layout – one gestural stroke materialises as the curved wall that envelops the otherwise orthogonal project.

‘When we first approached the site, we noticed a clearing at its centre, where a dramatic, green-tinged light seeped through the trees during the day,’ recalls Isabel Abascal, who founded Lanza atelier in Mexico City in 2015, alongside her partner and co-director, Alessandro Arienzo. This verdant glow became the design’s guiding principle. ‘From there, our premise was clear,’ says Abascal. ‘The clearing would be left largely intact, the house organised around it, and everything connected through a wall that bends around the existing vegetation.’

The clients, a family of four, sought a retreat from city life within a spacious home intimately connected to nature, and gave the studio free rein over the design. Five bedrooms and a studio space are found in the main volume. Across from it, a guest area with a bar, a gym and two guest bedrooms connects to the house through a narrow hallway, which offers glimpses of the clearing through a brick lattice wall.

Despite the project’s resolute introversion, the surrounding forest is still an imposing presence. Windows frame abstract fragments of the landscape, while overhead openings capture portions of the towering pines, and invite in sunlight to warm up the house. ‘Understanding how the sun would travel through the house was a very basic consideration,’ says Arienzo, ‘because it’s one more element that establishes a connection to the changing landscape.’

The sense of proximity with nature that Arienzo describes is heightened by the material qualities of the home. Featuring a curved concrete slab roof and Encino wood floors, the structure was built entirely with tabique blanco, a light brick produced in the nearby state of Puebla. Due to their porosity, the exterior-facing bricks establish a symbiotic relationship with the natural environment, acquiring a greenish hue when rain abounds, and becoming more golden during the dry season.

‘In all of our projects, we strive to avoid spaces with marked differences between interior and exterior,’ says Abascal. ‘And though this house appears to be quite introspective, there are also many gradations between inside and outside.’ Though undeniably contemporary in form, the project echoes both the medieval enclosed gardens of the Moors, and the 20th-century ‘emotional architecture’ of Luis Barragán and Mathias Goeritz, who sought to counteract the sterility of European modernism.

In countries such as Mexico, where vernacular architecture is still alive and well, and skilled artisans still abound, it is possible for designers to establish links between their work and the traditional techniques that have become inaccessible in other parts of the world. This opportunity is not lost on Lanza Atelier and its local contemporaries; in recent years, Mexican architecture has been lauded for embracing a local identity.

‘We try to use noble materials that are endemic to the region and can be assembled by a local workforce,’ says Arienzo, describing the process as a horizontal exchange of knowledge with artisans and construction workers. ‘Normally, a project with curves such as this one would be built with concrete,’ adds Abascal. ‘But using brick made sense for many reasons: the house’s relationship to its context, its colour, its texture. Bricks also made it a home that almost could not have been built elsewhere, because of the relationship between architects and the skilled artisanal workforce unique to Mexico.’

A version of this article was first published in Wallpaper* December 2020

lanzaatelier.com

Behind the façade of this 16th-century, colonial-era villa in Mérida, México, is a transformed interior, radically overhauled by the Berlin-based architecture studio Zeller & Moye, working alongside local architect Carlos Cuevas.

From a complete ruin, albeit a historically significant and listed one, Ingrid Moye, Christoph Zeller and their team have shaped a new hotel, boutique in scale and detail, with an aesthetic that serves up faded grandeur alongside contemporary architectural gestures.

‘Our design approach follows the concept of a palimpsest,’ the architects say. ‘Present and past layers coexist next to each other and form one rich entity where one can still identify the interventions from different periods of time.’

The completed Hotel Sevilla offers just 21 rooms, maintaining a grand domestic scale that evokes its original function as a large urban dwelling. Room sizes range from 21 to 70 sq m, many of which have views into the interior courtyard and pool area, as well as several generous suites.

While the lightly ornamented façade has been preserved and restored, along with the internal colonnade with its chequerboard tiles, timber shutter doors and traditional wooden ceiling, there is also a host of more contemporary interventions.

The architects have taken care to distinguish these through the use of raw, unfinished concrete, absent of decorative pattern and mouldings and bearing only the imprint of shuttering and the marks of the mix.

‘These punctual interventions contrast confidently with the remains of the colonial architecture,’ say the design team, which included Harrison Cole Nesbitt, Luca Genualdo, Nina Meyer, Alex Pineda and Sarah Righi. In addition, the internal arrangement was altered from the original layout to better suit its new life as a hotel.

Wherever possible, original textures and surfaces have been preserved, such as the stone arches that project into the new patio rooms, along with minimalist modern elements like towering bedheads and a striking spiral staircase.

‘We’ve taken inspiration from local and traditional architecture, craftwork, local materials, and even rituals of the region; and have mixed it with influences of Mexican modernism to reshape the building and to design its furniture,’ say the architects. Design details and furnishings use a combination of stone, local wood and concrete, paired with brass, sisal and leather.

In addition to the rooms, Hotel Sevilla contains a bar and two restaurants, as well as a spa. The new pool is woven into the architectural fabric of the courtyard, while ponds also serve as ways to bring cooling and visual interest to the interior and exterior spaces. The architects have used regional tropical plants to create barriers between the various zones.

ZellerMoye.com, @ZellerandMoye

HotelSevilla-Merida.com

Rolando Rodríguez-Leal and Natalia Wrzask met in London in 2006. Before establishing their own practice, Aidia Studio, in 2018, the Mexican-Polish couple worked at leading international firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects and Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Now, their designs aim to blend environmental considerations with form-finding exploration, balancing ambitious, eye-catching looks with sustainability concerns and a contextual take.

Meet Aidia Studio, and its mind-bending architectural forms

‘Aidia’s approach is rooted in innovation and adaptability, informed by a sense of place,’ say the duo. ‘This ethos is reflected in a diverse portfolio that includes the Rifat Chadirji Prize-winning Barjeel Museum for Modern Arab Art in Sharjah, Pyeongchang Knowledge Hub in South Korea, and Rub’al Khali Oculus eco resort in Abu Dhabi.’

Rodríguez-Leal and Wrzask describe themselves as ‘natural researchers’. This feels apt when you look at their work, which often combines imaginative ways of building and material sourcing, bold computational design and biophilic references. One of their latest works, Mercado Nicolás Bravo, a crafts market in Yucatán, reflects this well.

‘We focused on tackling critical challenges like overheating by implementing a double roofing system that enhances air circulation and cross ventilation. The roof ’s design features an inverted umbrella system, leading to a dynamic arrangement of double curvature hyperbolic vaults. The outcome reflects the movement and rhythm of the surrounding natural environment.’

More recent work includes the Tulum train station with its striking grid-shell structure; the Parque Quintana Roo, a series of pavilions that turned a former fairground into a year-round public space; explorations on alternative redevelopment models for the historic hutong typology, displayed at Beijing Design Week 2012; and the aforementioned winning project for the Museum of Modern Arab Art in Sharjah in 2019, where they beat 190 entries submitted by 44 countries.

The pair consider the last two projects in particular as landmarks for their studio’s growth. Several public space works, as well as a range of ‘naked luxury’ hospitality constructions in Mexico and the Middle East are currently in the pipeline.

When asked what they would like to see more of in the architecture world, they say: ‘The capacity to leverage technology for the benefit of a new biophilic design agenda. We need to overcome the fatigue around the concept of sustainable architecture. We are advocating for the design of complex responsive systems at both the architectural and urban scales that bring us closer to nature, improve the quality of life, particularly in underdeveloped urban centres, and mend the damage done to the environment.’

aidia-studio.com

As 2025 draws to a close, Wallpaper* begins to plan next year’s adventures. From landmark restorations and adaptive re-use projects to remote wilderness lodges and long-awaited brand debuts, these are the new hotel openings that have caught our eye: places designed to relax, retreat and explore, and destinations around which to plan your next travels. Spanning Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, the year ahead signals a particularly rich chapter for global hospitality, where thoughtful design, cultural context and a renewed emphasis on experience sit at the heart of the world’s most compelling new stays.

The hotel openings to know for 2026

Amanvari (Baja Peninsula, Mexico)

Next year, Aman will bring its laid-back lifestyle to the East Cape of Baja California, Mexico, with the opening of Amanvari: an 18-key retreat and collection of branded residences. Elastic Architects has designed thoughtfully considered villas that blur the boundary between indoors and out, showcasing Aman’s signature tranquil aesthetic through sandy-hued interiors, layers of natural stone and tropical woods, and bespoke Mexican ceramics and artworks. The Aman Spa will continue the brand’s focus on longevity, while multiple dining venues will celebrate Italian, Japanese and local cuisine.

aman.com

Black Sand Hotel (Ölfus, Iceland)

Sitting on a peninsula in the Ölfus region, Black Sand Hotel will be the first and only beachfront boutique hotel in Iceland, offering uninterrupted ocean views and interiors shaped by the country’s raw, elemental landscape. The 70 minimalist guest rooms and nine suites feature a restrained palette and layers of natural materials, with large windows framing sweeping views of the black volcanic beach, nearby mountains, and the North Atlantic, alongside the Ölfusá River. An expansive spa will share the same outlook across the black sands, while signature restaurant ÓMUR will celebrate seasonal Nordic cuisine.

blacksandhotel.is

Capella Kyoto (Japan)

Capella has tapped Kengo Kuma and Associates alongside Singapore-based Brewin Design Office to transform a former elementary school site into its next opening, Capella Kyoto. Located in Kyoto’s historic Miyagawa-chō district, the 89-room hotel draws its design cues from the city’s traditional wooden townhouses, known as machiya, unfolding as a series of inner courtyards and pared-back spaces that weave together classical Japanese elements such as shoji screens and tokonoma alcoves, anchored by a dramatic karahafu roof in the central courtyard. Three restaurants follow the rhythm of the seasons, while the spa is rooted in Japanese bathing rituals.

capellahotels.com

Chesa Marchetta (Sils Maria, Switzerland)

Chesa Marchetta will mark one of the first openings of 2026, and the second address from Swiss gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth, following the opening of Scotland’s much-loved Fife Arms. Formerly a celebrated restaurant in the heart of the Swiss cultural enclave of Sils Maria, the 13-key hotel has been reimagined by Argentinian, Paris-based architect Luis Laplace, while remaining firmly rooted in gastronomy through its seasonal restaurant. Next door, a three-bedroom house will be available for those seeking a more exclusive stay.

chesamarchetta.ch

Delano Miami Beach (USA)

An icon will be reborn next year with the reopening of the Delano Miami Beach. The South Beach landmark will emerge from an extensive renovation that restores its Art Deco glamour, preserving historic features while introducing a fresh, contemporary sensibility across the 171 rooms and suites. The hotel’s famed Delano Pool remains, joined by a new wellness studio and four new restaurants and bars, including a revival of Miami’s Rose Bar: the former epicentre of Hollywood royalty and the city’s high society.

delanohotels.com

Eha (Hiiumaa Island, Estonia)

Set within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the remote Estonian island of Hiiumaa, Eha is a boutique wellness retreat nestled between verdant pine forests and the Baltic Sea. Eight suites and three forest cabins are designed to blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape, featuring minimalist interiors in soothing neutral tones. The wellness programme follows the island’s unique five-season calendar, with activities, treatments and ancient Estonian healing rituals guided by sustainable practices and the energy of each season.

eharetreat.com

Hoshinoya Nara Prison (Japan)

A former prison is an unlikely setting for a hotel, yet Nara Prison is regarded as an architectural masterpiece in Nara Prefecture and is officially recognised as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Next year will see it reborn as Hoshinoya Nara Prison, following a sensitive restoration that respectfully fuses its Meiji-era architecture with contemporary interiors. The hotel will also house a Japanese tea salon, restaurant and dining lounge, while the neighbouring Nara Prison Museum will preserve the site’s history, bridging past and present.

hoshinoresorts.com

Nihi Rote (Rote Island, Indonesia)

The founders of Nihi Sumba will deepen their commitment to sustainable, community-led development in Indonesia next year with the opening of Nihi Rote, the brand’s second hotel, located on Rote Island in Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara Timur province. The retreat will feature 21 handcrafted villas that blend traditional Rotenese architecture with modern comforts, continuing Nihi’s Wild Wellness philosophy through outdoor adventure programmes, organic gardens and children’s initiatives that encourage learning through discovery. The hotel will open alongside the Namo Beach Club, as well as an academy dedicated to training the next generation of hospitality professionals.

nihi.com

Orient Express Venezia (Italy)

After breathing new life into the landmark Roman hotel La Minerva, Orient Express will open its second hotel in Venice within a 15th-century noble palace. Architect Aline Asmar d’Amman has overseen the eight-year restoration, reviving the mansion’s Neo-Gothic and Baroque grandeur while creating 47 guestrooms and suites luxuriously dressed in marble, Murano glass, rich velvets and Art Deco-inspired furnishings. The most spectacular suites elevate the experience further, featuring 19th-century frescoes of the goddess Minerva, gilded salons and sweeping canal views.

orient-express.com

Public West Hollywood (USA)

After launching his latest hotel brand, Public Hotels, in New York, legendary hotelier Ian Schrager will head to the West Coast to open his second address, Public West Hollywood. Set within a landmark building on the famed Sunset Strip, the 137-key hotel has been conceived by Schrager in collaboration with British architect John Pawson. Guest rooms make a deliberately understated statement, dressed in neutral tones, while furnishings in saturated hues inject a vivid counterpoint into the all-white lobby. Facilities will include three food, beverage and entertainment destinations, a pool, and a 16,000-square-foot open-air rooftop terrace with 360-degree views across Los Angeles.

publichotels.com

Singita Elela (Okavango Delta, Botswana)

Singita will embark on a new adventure next year with its first venture into the pristine wilderness of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Named Elela, from the Setswana word meaning ‘to flow’, the new safari retreat will comprise eight circular camps that open in all directions, blurring the boundary between indoors and out to form a respectful extension of the natural surroundings. Inside, organic materials and handcrafted furnishings celebrate local craftsmanship. Each camp will be supported by its own dedicated team – a guide, tracker and host – leading guests through the Delta and its extraordinary wildlife, including more than 400 species of birds.

singita.com

Six Senses London (UK)

Six Senses will make its UK debut next year within the former Art Deco department store The Whiteley, in the heart of London’s Bayswater. Interiors will draw on the building’s heritage, blending classical detailing and new age elements with a contemporary sensibility, including a curated collection of modern British artworks. The expansive Six Senses Spa will be a highlight, while the opening will also mark the launch of the brand’s new private members’ club, Six Senses Place.

sixsenses.com

The Standard, Lisbon (Portgual)

The Standard has tapped architect Samuel Torres de Carvalho to oversee the design of its next European address, set atop the historic College of St Francis Xavier, formerly home to the Portuguese Royal Navy Hospital for more than 200 years. The 170 guestrooms and 24 long-stay apartments are finished in a palette of calming, earthy tones, while the lobby lounge, bar and all-day dining restaurant are imbued with The Standard’s signature boldness through sculptural forms and saturated hues. Upstairs, a rooftop bar shaded by striped parasols will offer sweeping views across the terracotta rooftops of the surrounding Alfama neighbourhood.

standardhotels.com

Vestige Namibia

Vestige will venture beyond Spain for the first time next year with the launch of Xaudum, one of four planned lodges in northern Namibia. Perched atop a prehistoric sand dune within the untouched wilderness of Khaudum National Park, Xaudum’s minimalist architecture is set to make a striking impression, with daily safari drives offering sightings of elephants, antelopes and African wild dogs. Three additional lodges will follow in 2027, each conceived with an equally bold – at times futuristic – design inspired by its natural surroundings.

vestigecollection.com

Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch (London, UK)

Waldorf Astoria will make a grand entrance onto London’s hotel scene next year with the highly anticipated opening of Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch, housed within the historic landmark originally commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of Queen Victoria. Positioned at the end of The Mall, directly opposite Buckingham Palace, the storied property has been sensitively restored and will offer 100 guest rooms and suites, restaurants overseen by celebrated chefs Clare Smyth MBE and Daniel Boulud, a state-of-the-art spa, and a presidential suite with views across Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.

hilton.com

Founded in 2016, Palma is headed up by Ilse Cárdenas, Regina de Hoyos and Diego Escamilla, all graduates of the School of Architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Now with bases in Mexico City and Sayulita, the trio work fluidly across scales and typologies, leading a team of seven while placing agility, experimentation and a sense of restless curiosity at the core of their approach.

Meet Palma, the emerging Mexican studio between Mexico City and Sayulita

‘At the heart of our practice lies a dual commitment to both permanent architecture and ephemeral interventions,’ the team say. ‘We see each realm as vital to the other. Permanent works allow us to deepen the dialogue with context and everyday life, while ephemeral projects open space for bold experimentation. Nearly half of our work to date has been temporary, and this balance between the two realms continually expands our way of thinking, keeping our process dynamic and open-ended.’

Two schemes – one permanent, the other temporary – have marked defining moments in the studio’s trajectory. A 50 sq m bungalow in Litibu, completed in 2020, is one of its earliest built works and combines concrete forms with a woven palm leaf roof. ‘Despite its modest scale, it allowed us to express many of the ideas that continue to define our architecture: clarity, simplicity and attention to material,’ the team say. Meanwhile, an installation for the Concéntrico Festival 2021 in Logroño, Spain (created with Madrid studio Hanghar) brought the international spotlight on to the studio, reinforcing their belief that ‘temporary projects can be powerful laboratories for experimentation’.

An ongoing commission for a clifftop home on Mexico’s Pacific Coast perfectly reflects their overall approach. Combining a 1970s structure and a new extension, the scheme might seem like a run-of-the-mill renovation on paper, but for Palma, it has provided precious space for material testing and developing an ongoing dialogue between architecture and its context.

Trials and tests continually add to Palma’s knowledge base and creative arsenal and, in order to make that happen, working with other craft and design professionals is key to the studio’s practice. ‘Collaboration has become essential to the way we work. It has broadened our perspective and allowed us to learn from different contexts, methods and ways of thinking about architecture,’ they say. ‘In contrast, we feel that, in Mexico there is still a strong sense of individualism within the profession. We believe embracing collaboration more fully could foster a more generous and exploratory architectural culture, where projects grow from dialogue and shared curiosity.’

palma-mx.com

Community and creativity are reshaping daily life in this edit of storied destinations, set to define the travel conversation for 2026. Each offers more than surface appeal – through architectural ambition, grassroots cultural energy, or a renewed sense of purpose – and rewards visitors willing to look a little deeper.

Where to travel in 2026

Hiroshima, Japan

Eighty years on, Hiroshima is no longer defined by a single moment in time, but by what emerged from it: a city rebuilt through architecture. From the ruins of wartime devastation came a bold modernist vision, shaped by figures such as Kenzo Tange and Togo Murano, later extended by contemporary masters including Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban and Jun Aoki, among others. That legacy feels newly energised today. The launch of the three-yearly Hiroshima Architecture Exhibition this year positions the city as a centre for architectural discourse, uniting Pritzker Prize winners, experimental practices and emerging voices. When the festival is not on, highlights remain plentiful: from Shigeru Ban’s Simose Art Garden Villa to Kisho Kurokawa’s restored Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Beyond the city, the wider prefecture unfolds as a constellation of design destinations in its own right.

Read our full feature on Hiroshima

Hong Kong

Few skylines are as instantly recognisable as Hong Kong’s, but to understand the city is to look beyond its serrated outline of glass towers and jade-green peaks. Long defined as a global financial hub and gateway between East and West, Hong Kong today reveals itself as something more layered: a place where heritage, nature and creativity reshape its identity. Icons such as I.M. Pei’s Bank of China Tower and Norman Foster’s HSBC Building anchor the skyline, while adaptive-reuse projects signal a shift in mindset. Tai Kwun, PMQ and The Mills transform former police quarters and factories into cultural engines. Beyond Central, districts such as Sham Shui Po pulse with everyday life and creative reinvention, where design studios, tofu shops and neon-lit markets coexist. Add to this more than 40 per cent protected green space, and Hong Kong emerges as a city of rare duality – resilient, evolving and deeply alive.

Read our full feature on Hong Kong

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Along the cobbled streets of San Miguel de Allende, colour seeps from every corner. Painted façades, marigold-framed doorways and sunlit courtyards set the rhythm of daily life, anchored by the city’s distinctive pink parish church rising above the rooftops. Long admired for its historic character, the highland town today is experiencing a renewed creative energy, drawing designers, artists and makers in search of light, pace and a deeper connection to craft. Once a magnet for 20th-century painters, writers and intellectuals, San Miguel is again evolving. Studios, galleries and small design-led businesses sit alongside long-established workshops specialising in textiles, ceramics and copper, encouraging close collaboration and a slower, more considered way of working.

Read our full feature on San Miguel de Allende

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Set midway between Europe and China, Tashkent rises from the Central Asian steppe as one of the Silk Road’s most layered cities. Shaped by Arab, Persian, Mongol and Russian rule, it became the capital of an independent Uzbekistan in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Few places reveal history so vividly. Ancient Islamic quarters sit beside Imperial Russian boulevards, Stalinist monuments and the boldly imaginative Soviet modernism of the 1960s and 70s. While parts of that legacy are being reshaped by new marble-clad developments, many landmarks endure: the Hotel Uzbekistan, the sculptural Chorsu Bazaar and a metro system whose chandeliers and marble halls feel closer to a palace than public transport. Emerging from decades of isolation, Tashkent remains refreshingly untouched by mass tourism, with leafy parks, open-air markets and a café culture that feels unhurried and genuine. It is a city rediscovering itself.

Read our full feature on Tashkent

Tbilisi, Georgia

The Georgian capital is defined by a fiercely independent cultural spirit forged over millennia and sharpened by adversity. While the country’s political climate is fraught, its creative life remains defiantly alive. Artists, designers, musicians and chefs continue to build, make and gather, sustaining a city where culture functions as both refuge and resistance. Today, Georgian wine, food and hospitality are legendary. New spaces reflect this momentum, including the recently opened Telegraph Hotel, which has quickly become a social anchor for the city’s creative community. From neighbourhood hotels, restaurants and nightclubs that double as communal living rooms, to studios where fashion, art and craft evolve hand-in-hand with tradition, Tbilisi is a city that has learned how to endure.

Read our full feature on Tbilisi

In 2023, the directors of Arca Tierra, an organic farm in southern Mexico City, approached Sana Frini and Jachen Schleich to design a space for their new restaurant Baldío that would reflect their zero-waste ethos. Frini and Schleich were thrilled. Over the previous three years, the architects had built their practice, Locus, around what Frini calls ‘eco-localism, which isn’t ‘ecological’, exactly, but comes from the ecosystem you’re in’ – environmental, but also material, creative and social.

Meet Locus, the Mexican architects challenging the status quo

Collaborating with local design firms, Locus incorporated scrap wood into seating and made terrazzo-like floors by mixing organic waste from Arca’s farms into a light matrix of concrete. ‘We applied the knowledge we have,’ Frini explains. ‘What excites us for the future? To adapt that knowledge to different scales.’

Born into peripheries (Frini in Tunis, at the northern tip of the African continent, Schleich into Switzerland’s tiny Romansh-speaking minority), Locus’ founders come by their adaptability naturally. Schleich first came to Mexico in 2006 when a friend invited him to work on a short-term set design project.

Frini arrived a decade later, in 2016, after a visit to the Mexican pavilion at that year’s Venice Biennial. After several years working at the same firm, Schleich and Frini started to collaborate on various projects, even as they took on other jobs – Frini as a visiting critic at Cornell University, Schleich for a Swiss-funded initiative connecting architects with regional sustainable design experts.

Since its founding in 2020, Locus has grown quickly. Frini and Schleich have completed a sprawling timber structure in Mexico City’s newly opened Lake Texcoco Ecological Park, and co-curated the 2025 Versailles Biennale while also participating in a collective installation at the Mexican Pavilion in Venice. Current projects include houses in Mexico and Switzerland, a hotel and an ambitious educational complex, both in the Yucatán Peninsula. All draw on vernacular logics such as cross-ventilation and courtyards to achieve climate resiliency.

Though linked by their formal clarity, Locus’ projects share an attitude rather than an obvious visual language. ‘If you lose track of what makes a space habitable, you generate images that become a ‘style’,’ says Schleich, which, in turn, generate shallow responses to deep ecological problems. Shifting paradigms in climate and geopolitics are now forcing a worldwide return to local technologies. ‘Doors are closing,’ observes Frini. Which means that windows must be opening – to alternative ways of thinking and building. ‘Jachen and I both believe that beauty comes through necessity,’ Frini says.

locilocus.com

As a child growing up in Mexico City, Carlos Matos often spent time at the home of his grandfather, architect Ernesto Gómez Gallardo, in the affluent district of San Jerónimo. Built in the late 1970s, the brutalist Casa Möbius was ‘distanced from the idea of comfort, slightly dysfunctional’, recalls Matos. ‘Even the bathrooms were triangular. It was absurd.’ Despite its peculiar layout, the house also offered ‘spaces for every kind of interaction’. It was a habitable provocation, prodding at what Matos calls ‘the boundaries between architecture and sculpture.’ That boundary – blurred, possibly obsolete – has been central to his practice ever since.

Meet Carlos H Matos, the experimental young Mexican architect

Matos’ work in Mexico City began in 2014, three years after he finished his degree at London’s Architectural Association (AA). That year, along with two of his colleagues, he started a visiting programme for the AA called Beton Machine, which was ‘all about experiments with concrete and monumental sculpture in Mexico,’ he says. For four years, they offered ‘a crash course’ on pre-Hispanic ruins, modernist abstraction, social-realist reliefs, and everything in between, from Juan O’Gorman and Diego Rivera’s Anahuacalli Museum to an intensive study of Edward James’ surrealist garden in Xilitla.

From 2016-2023, Matos explored those forms through Tezontle, a studio founded with Lucas Cantú. Together, they developed a singular language that was both organic and geometric, figurative and abstract, primitive and futuristic. Since parting ways with Cantú, Matos has continued to develop his own interests by applying the tactile materiality of architecture to his sculpture, and the ambiguity of art to his buildings. For Casa Monte, completed in 2024 on the Oaxacan coast, Matos used massive concrete blocks, cast in situ, to build a house like a half-ruined or half-built temple. His 2025 solo show at Mexico City gallery

Peana deployed resin, aluminium, concrete and steel in an elaborate tableau, equal parts builder’s workshop, petrified Zen garden and alien garage. Other recent projects include a temazcal (a pre-Hispanic sweat lodge) in upstate New York, and ongoing research for a forthcoming installation at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in LA.

‘I’m always interested in where things are situated in time, the question of “when is this from”,’ says Matos, who prefers to think of ‘architecture as a stage’ – playful, theatrical and resonant. His buildings are not just for habitation. They are, like his grandfather’s house, ‘for every kind of interaction’ – indeterminate borderlands where, he says, ‘you can act out the tension between the future and the past’.

@m_a_t_o_s

Alessandra de Mitri started out studying architecture at the UK’s Oxford Brookes University, but felt disheartened by the programme. She sought a more experiential approach, one that treated space not merely as structure but as a medium for lived experience. This led her to Switzerland’s Mendrisio Academy, where the curriculum focused on phenomenology, emotional resonance and sensory perception. Here she met Roberto Rodríguez, an architect from Mexico City who had arrived at Mendrisio driven by a curiosity that mirrored her own.

Meet Rodríguez + De Mitri, the young architecture studio from Cuernavaca

After internships with the likes of Francis Keré and Flores & Prats, the pair graduated in the midst of a global pandemic. Rodríguez returned to Mexico City, where he began working at TAX, under celebrated architect Alberto Kalach. Soon after, de Mitri followed, taking jobs at the studios of Mauricio Rocha and Ignacio Urquiza.

As it happens, their debut commission came through a personal connection: a family friend recommended them for a plant nursery that would aid the reforestation efforts of the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve in Quintana Roo, which had been severely damaged by fires in 2019.

Modest in scale but ambitious in intention, the reforestation nursery was a prefabricated structure of galvanised steel, draped in agricultural mesh and raised above ground to leave minimal impact on the fragile landscape and reduce the risk of plant disease. It was the first project that Rodríguez and de Mitri formally designed together, but years of academic collaboration had already attuned them to a smooth cycle of mutual feedback. ‘The Mendrisio culture encourages open reviews and constant discussion,’ says Rodríguez. ‘It’s still part of our process – design as conversation,’ adds de Mitri.

Their second project, a three-unit housing development on a 200 sq m plot, marked a turning point. ‘It was more complex than the nursery,’ Rodríguez recalls. ‘All exposed brick and concrete, full-scale supervision.’

When they officially founded Rodríguez + de Mitri, it was with the aim of approaching architecture on their own terms. ‘We try to rethink structural systems and material origins, to propose lighter, less conventional solutions,’ says Rodríguez. Echoes de Mitri, ‘It’s about designing in negative, thinking about what can be removed, using the minimum materials needed.’

This approach, she says, ‘has an ethical as well as an aesthetic dimension.’ Their budding practice insists that architecture be measured, intentional and attentive – a space where every material, void and gesture serves a purpose, allowing both the environment and its inhabitants to breathe.

rodriguezdemitri.com

Current members of Office of Urban Resilience, Elena Tudela, Victor Rico and Adriana Chávez, were working toward their master’s degrees at the Harvard Graduate School of Design when they heard about an open call from the Rockefeller Foundation for a project called 100 Resilient Cities. Raised in Mexico City, the trio immediately thought of their geologically unstable hometown as a perfect candidate for funding a comprehensive resiliency strategy.

Meet Office of Urban Resilience (ORU) from Mexico City

They approached the city government about applying, pulling together a complex diagnostic mapping of its urban footprint over flashpoints of environmental risk and centuries of lacustrine history. The foundation selected the Mexican capital as one of its first 30 cities and, soon after, the city itself created a Resiliency Agency – ‘one of the few cities that institutionalised the programme,’ says Chávez.

Returning home around 2014, the three designers found jobs – Tudela in academia, Rico in the city’s public works department, Chávez in the Resiliency Agency she had helped create – while developing Office of Urban Resilience (ORU) on the side (alongside Chávez’s brother Guillermo). That first project had offered invaluable lessons in ‘putting yourself on the table and positioning yourself to say, “This is what’s missing”,’ says Tudela. ORU’s posture has always been ‘that architecture should be more than designing objects,’ adds Rico. ‘It can be a tool for generating knowledge.’

For their first few years, Tudela recalls, ‘people would say to us, “you’re not designers, you’re consultants”.’ Then, in 2020, ORU completed a pair of projects in the floodprone margins of Cabo San Lucas, in Baja California Sur, for the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development.

Unassuming, cheap to build and easy to maintain, the projects doubled as civic infrastructure and public space, mitigating heat and managing water while providing shelters for future disaster relief. ORU had proven that its research-based approach could indeed produce worthy buildings.

In the years since, ORU has worked with a staggering array of government agencies, NGOs, universities, museums and enterprises to develop temporary pavilions, parks and territorial analyses. ‘It’s not easy for a studio to work with these organisms and understand their dynamics,’ says Adriana Chávez, but ORU has become a nimble intermediary. This work, Rico says, provides ‘mechanisms for making informed decisions’. That ambition sounds modest compared to the society-shaping goals of modernism, but ORU doesn’t see it that way. ‘We need to think at the scale of shade, a roof, a community,’ says Tudela. ‘The city can learn from projects that work.’

o-ru.mx

In the last 12 months, the most talked-about restaurants weren’t just about what was on the plate. Design took the lead, with new openings using architecture and interiors as part of the experience rather than polite scenery. Across cities and continents, former embassies, fortresses, office blocks and coastal sites were reworked into dining rooms with a clear point of view. The following Wallpaper* edit offers a snapshot of the spaces that redefined restaurant design this year.

The best restaurant design of 2025

Call Me Ten

Tucked within the refined, residential enclave of Vasant Vihar in New Delhi, Call Me Ten emerges as a 6,000 sq ft Japanese restaurant and bar. Designed by Renesa Architecture Design Interiors, the site is defined by a materially restrained but expressive language. Natural limestone plaster and stone aggregates anchor the space, while soft curves and muted tones create an interior that feels both serene and theatrical. Subtle nods to Japanese aesthetics run throughout, from Shoji-inspired partitions that diffuse light with gentle translucency to a layout informed by tatami logic, encouraging intimacy and order. Polished concrete floors lend contemporary clarity, offset by pockets of deep-toned, hand-crafted mosaic tiles. Complementing the design, the menu reinterprets Japanese tradition through a modern izakaya lens, pairing dishes such as miso black cod and pork belly with inventive, Asian-inflected cocktails.

Call Me Ten is located at 58, Market, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, Delhi 110057, India

Read our full review of Call Me Ten

Carbone London

Once Eero Saarinen’s modernist vision of American diplomacy, the former US Embassy reopened this year as The Chancery Rosewood. Appropriately, the Grade II-listed building now hosts Carbone, one of America’s most beloved restaurants, marking the brand’s first European outpost. Originating in New York’s Greenwich Village, Carbone is as renowned for its Italian-American classics as its A-list following. In London, designer Ken Fulk channels Rat Pack-era glamour across a two-level space rich in theatrical flourish: Carbone-blue panelling, hand-painted murals, burgundy velvet banquettes and marble mosaics set the scene. MoMA-calibre artworks, live music and an indulgent, ‘a piacere’, or ‘as you like it’ culinary approach complete an experience rooted in spectacle.

Carbone London is located at 30 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 2LG, UK

Read our full review of Carbone London

Cento Raw Bar

Michelin-recognised Cento Pasta Bar has long been one of West Adams’ most elusive reservations; now, its sibling Cento Raw Bar opens next door, offering Angelenos a second, distinctly different experience from chef and co-owner Avner Levi. Designed by Brandon Miradi, also behind Somni, the space is defined by thickly plastered walls and ceilings, brushed into undulating waves that lend a quietly surreal, oceanic rhythm. The motif continues in curved ceilings, minimal metal barstools and custom tableware, while sculptural light fittings by Ukrainian studio ClayP add tactility overhead. At the centre, scallop-shaped seafood towers piled high with oysters, shrimp and lobster set the tone, alongside jewel-toned cocktails. Dessert leans playful, with mosaic cheesecake and a nostalgic chocolate cake finale.

Cento Raw Bar is located at 4919 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016, United States

Read our full review of Cento Raw Bar

Dévo Marseille

Designer Axel Chay’s totemic tubular steel forms have long embodied Marseille’s creative pulse; now, he and his wife Mélissa channel that energy into Dévo, a new restaurant and wine bar in the Préfecture neighbourhood. Named after the American new-wave band, it marks the duo’s first fully designed and art-directed space. Cocooning yet animated, the interior pairs contemporary lines with vintage patina: lime satin curtains sweep across concrete floors, offsetting a zinc bar and steel stools inspired by Italian cafés and Spanish vermuterias. Cinematic details abound: mirrored artworks by Aurélien Ciller, plaster seagulls in flight and bespoke lighting by Axel’s brother Aimeric. In the kitchen, chef Ferdinand Fravega serves relaxed Provençal dishes, paired with a 100-strong list of independent and natural wines.

Dévo Marseille is located at 22 Bd Paul Peytral, 13006 Marseille, France

Read our full review of Dévo Marseille

Elmina

In Washington DC, Elmina is the debut bricks-and-mortar venture of Ghanaian-American chef Eric Adjepong: a restaurant that celebrates modern Africa while acknowledging the complexities of its past. Its name carries weight, referencing the port that became the site of sub-Saharan Africa’s first European slave-trading post. Dreamt up by local studio Drummond Projects, the 3,720 sq ft, three-storey space reads as a fluid, immersive journey, with each space defined by material and colour references, unified by a sculptural curving stairwell and enriched with bespoke artworks, artisan textiles and warm, tactile finishes throughout. The food itself is deeply rooted in tradition, a love letter to Adjepong’s ancestors and recipes he grew up with. Experiences on offer span a five-course tasting menu, a chop bar selection and a hearty brunch, with standout dishes including the comfortingly smoky jollof duck pot.

Elmina is located at 2208 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States

Read our full review of Elmina

Restaurant Esperit Roca

Set within a 19th-century fortress on the hills outside Girona, Esperit Roca evokes the beauty of raw materials with a rugged yet refined touch. Part of a remote gastronomic complex by the Roca brothers, which also houses a 16-bedroom hotel, the restaurant overlooks the mountains, woodland and sea of northern Catalonia. Designed by Girona-based Andreu Carulla, the interiors are pared-back and elemental, shaped from stone, concrete and wood in muted greys and greens. Locally quarried piedra de Girona limestone forms sculptural counters, lamps and monolithic sinks, echoing the fortress itself. Midcentury-inspired furniture, agricultural textiles and pockets of greenery reinforce the connection to place. In the kitchen, Joan and Jordi Roca deliver concept-driven tasting menus that reinterpret local produce with rigour, poetry and surprise. Don’t miss the tasting menu that offers two main courses and six desserts.

Restaurant Esperit Roca is located at Carrer Major, Entrada 1, 17481 Sant Julià de Ramis, Girona, Spain

Read our full review of Restaurant Esperit Roca

Finlandia Bistro

Alvar Aalto’s modernist landmark, Finlandia Hall, now houses a new restaurant that allows guests to dine in surroundings that gently echo the architect’s enduring design language. In contrast to the hall’s light, open spaces, the bistro is warmly cocooned in deeper tones, soft fabrics and tactile textures. Designed by Fyra, the interior blends Finnish modernist classics with contemporary pieces from Finnish Design Shop, alongside bespoke built-ins. Deep blue curtains recall Finlandia Hall’s cobalt accents, while wood and brass details nod to Aalto’s modernism. Led by head chef Mikko Puuronen, the 64-seat restaurant serves Nordic-inspired dishes with subtle Mediterranean inflexions.

Finlandia Bistro is located at Mannerheimintie 13e, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Read our full review of Finlandia Bistro

Jncquoi Fish

‘Where food meets fashion meets hospitality’ underpins Jncquoi, the Lisbon lifestyle hub launched in 2017 by Paula Amorim and Miguel Guedes de Sousa of the Amorim Luxury Group. While the brand’s first hotel, Jncquoi House (designed by Vincent Van Duysen), will open in 2026, its newest restaurant, Jncquoi Fish, already signals the next chapter. Beneath a neo-Moorish façade, the space unfolds in Van Duysen’s restrained language of marble, limestone and ceramics, with dark clay floors by Viúva Lamego and bespoke furnishings and lighting made in Portugal. Tables cluster around the open kitchen, where chefs António Bóia and Filipe Carvalho celebrate Atlantic seafood through refined Portuguese flavours, from caviar-topped cod fritters to blue lobster rice, complemented by an astute, terroir-driven wine programme and assured, indulgent desserts.

Jncquoi Fish is located at Av. da Liberdade 189 1, 1250-096 Lisboa, Portugal

Read our full review of Jncquoi Fish

Milló

On the ground floor of the ADNBA-designed Millo Offices in Bucharest’s business area, Milló explores how contemporary design can converse with history. Responding to the building’s art deco undertones, local studio AÉ02 shaped an interior defined by light, texture and material warmth. At its centre hangs a dramatic ‘volcano of light’: an illuminated feature suspended above the main dining table, shifting in tone throughout the day. LED strips trace the ceiling edges, sharpening geometry through light and shadow, while the bar counter pairs stainless steel with cherry Levanto marble, concealing a discreet DJ booth. The Mediterranean-leaning menu – think baked artichoke, saffron risotto and miso-marinated cod – completes the experience, encouraging guests to linger from midday through to midnight.

Milló is located at Strada Ion Câmpineanu 19, Bucharest 030167, Romania.

Read our full review of Milló

Rubra

Hotel restaurants rarely transcend the orbit of the properties they inhabit, but on the northern edge of Banderas Bay, Rubra decisively breaks that pattern. Part of W Punta de Mita, the restaurant is led by Daniela Soto-Innes, who was named World’s Best Female Chef in 2019. At just 28, she was the youngest chef to earn the accolade. Designed by Ignacio Urquiza with interiors by Ana Paula de Alba, Rubra takes the form of a sand-toned concrete monolith, its restrained architecture softened by creeping greenery and expansive views towards the Sierra Madre. A pergola of wooden lattices filters light across an open, fluid dining room, blurring indoors and out. Soto-Innes’ ‘tropical cooking’ draws from seasonal produce, much of it grown on site, shaping menus that favour citrus, herbs and vivid coastal flavours, from scallops dressed in kombu aguachile to flower-crowned tuna tostadas.

Rubra is located at Carr. Federal la Cruz de Huanacaxtle - Punta de Mita Km 8.5, Desarrollo Costa, 63734 Corral del Risco, Nay., Mexico

Read our full review of Rubra

Emerging in the Mexican city of Guadalajara around 1927 and strongly active until 1936, the Escuela Tapatía de Arquitectura was a movement that sought to forge a distinctly regional vein of modernism, favouring local materials and artisanal craft in response to the era’s preoccupation with industrial novelty and stylistic experimentation.

Meet Guadalajara architects Barbapiña

Nearly a century later, local architects Laura Barba and Luis Aurelio Piña cite that vision as a guiding principle of their practice. However, their devotion manifests in a contemporary interpretation of the ethos, adapted across diverse sites and programmes.

Barba and Piña founded their studio in 2022, following a decade of collaboration that began at university and continued through their time as colleagues in various local firms. ‘We remain committed to the philosophy that we shared when we first began designing together, which circles around the intention of generating a sense of belonging,’ says Barba.

Their office, in Guadalajara’s historic Americana district, stands as tangible proof of that pursuit – a warm space with gauzy curtains, disparate curios and robust wooden furnishings, evoking the feeling of permanence and familiarity that underpins Barbapiña’s work. Each project begins with small-scale investigations that contemplate the narratives of a place, studying the particular rhythms of daily life, the collective memories embedded in the region, and the material qualities of the site’s context, whether it be a natural or built environment.

‘There are vast differences in the way architecture is conceived, from north to south and in between,’ says Piña, reflecting on the experiences of designing a family home in Baja California, a residential complex in Quintana Roo, and mixed-use projects in Guadalajara.

While some architects build a body of work that can be read as the continuous refinement of a single formal idea, Barbapiña allows the site to set the tone, ‘not so much as a quest for innovation,’ Piña says, ‘but from a desire to create spaces that appear born of their specific surroundings.’

It is increasingly rare for an architect to state that their work is concerned with cultivating beauty and preserving tradition, but Barbapiña do not view these aims as mutually exclusive. ‘We live in a world where rapid urbanisation and globalisation have led to a generalised crisis of identity,’ says Barba. ‘So beauty, memory and belonging have become matters of great urgency.’ By focusing on the cadence of history and the textures of local life, and honouring both culture and environment, Barbapiña creates architecture that is inherently sustainable and designed to last.

barbapiñaarquitectos.com

This article is part of a series on Mexican architects that appears in the January 2026 Next Generation issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 4 December 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

‘At the core of our practice lies the idea that architecture should reveal, not impose,’ say the Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) team. ‘Each project begins with an understanding of its site, material, cultural and climatic conditions, and translates these into spatial experiences that feel inevitable and alive.'

Meet Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA)

They continue: 'We treat structure, proportion and light as elements of a single language, where the boundaries between interior and exterior dissolve into a continuous, open field. Our architecture seeks to define space through absence as much as through presence, allowing void, time and atmosphere to become active components of design.’

Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) is still a relatively young practice, yet it has grown in leaps and bounds since its foundation in 2018 by Pablo Pérez Palacios. A philosophy centred on sensitivity, balance and a deeply contextual understanding of each scheme sits at the heart of the studio’s work. This is also reflected in its make-up as the practice now operates as a collective of some 15 collaborators with key members including head of strategy Emilio Calvo Garza and interior designer Michelle Katrib.

True as this may be, PPAA’s architecture still looks confident and refined, bearing an aesthetic signature that sets it apart among its peers. As a result, the studio has a growing portfolio of commissions, from residential to cultural and hospitality projects in Mexico, the US, France and Switzerland. Highlights include the Copas House in Valle de Bravo, and a guesthouse for Danish brand Vipp in Todos Santos, which won a Wallpaper* Design Award last year. ‘In both cases, the defined exterior space became a key element – the understanding that what we leave unbuilt is as important as what we build,’ they say.

What might surprise is that the team often begins each design by writing. ‘We draft texts about our intentions, ideas and the emotions we want the architecture to evoke. From there, we move to dialogue, sketches and models.

This iterative and collective process allows projects to evolve organically, shaped by reflection and collaboration rather than direction.’ Achieving designs with thought-provoking meaning is important for the team, who stress that ‘architecture today often risks becoming an image – a form of visual consumption detached from its human and spatial essence. What is missing, perhaps, is silence: the capacity to create spaces that invite pause, intimacy and awareness. In Mexico, this translates into a renewed need for architecture that listens – to climate, material and collective life – and that reclaims architecture as a cultural and poetic act, not merely a visual one.’

ppaa.mx

At Wallpaper*, movement is second nature, and savouring it is an art. Whether on assignment or off-duty, our editorial team is perpetually combing the globe, visiting places that are mind-expanding and spirit-lifting. This year, we paused to gather the places that truly stayed with us. Consider this selection of travel highlights, handpicked by our staff, as a starting point for the year ahead, compiled to spark curiosity and fuel your future travel plans.

As such, follow the sun to Mexico, Greece, Spain and Italy, or embrace the stark beauty of Finland and Iceland. Looking for adventure? Uzbekistan, Egypt and Kenya deliver. For a spiritual reset, Japan and South Korea offer ritual and depth. From European mainstays such as Vienna and Lisbon to American icons including Miami and Joshua Tree, let’s get globetrotting.

Amanohashidate, Japan

‘Last April, adding a few days to a long-haul work trip felt like the responsible thing to do, particularly when long-haul now extends to a 16-hour dog-leg to Osaka via Doha, which is how I came to visit one of Japan’s most revered destinations, Amanohashidate, site of a 3.6km sidebar known as ‘the staircase to heaven’ that cuts across Miayazu Bay in Kyoto prefecture. Amanohashidate itself is a quiet village with a national landmark at its heart and a well-run ryokan (Monjusou) to relax in, but the surrounding area is blessed with no less significant points of interest. Ine is a ‘floating village’ of 230 fishing cottages, protected as a heritage site, that offers good walking with splendid sea views and great coffee in one of its repurposed properties. Sometimes all you need is sea air, the odd stroll and the chance to indulge in something as silly as matanozoki, or peering between your legs atop Kasamatsu Park, at which point the now-inverted sandbar appears as a bridge across the sky.’

– Bill Prince, editor-in-chief

Athens, Greece

‘This past autumn, I celebrated a milestone birthday in Athens. The city feels as though it was shaped by accumulation rather than careful urban planning, its layers of typeface, texture and attitude stacked across eras, politics and glitzy inconsistencies. Visually, Athens is unrelenting: everything speaks loudly and constantly, and nothing is treated as too precious. Even the Acropolis feels unresolved, its original fragments scattered between the exquisitely built Acropolis Museum and far beyond Greece’s borders. I enjoyed long lunches with generous pours of Assyrtiko from aluminium jugs, and late nights drifting into hot spots like SMUT, where Athens’ spontaneity really kicks in. I chose Athens as my favourite of the year because it thrives in chaos, offering moments of beauty and excitement, and rewarding those who stay longer, pay attention and arrive hungry.’

– Gabriel Annouka, senior designer

Brittany, France

‘On something of a nostalgia trip to the south coast of Brittany, France – the destination of my first-ever trip abroad – now with my own teenagers in tow, I was relieved to find it a still-lovely, laidback and low-key escape with none of the hussle or hassle a beach break during the summer holidays can entail. The sea was utterly clear – too freezing for me, even in July, for more than one cold plunge, but perfect for kayaking or admiring endlessly from coastal walking paths. Bike hire in this cycling-obsessed nation was ubiquitous and the paths plentiful and well sign-posted; they even continued across estuaries, courtesy of short ferry hops on which bikes were not just bienvenue but (bafflingly for a Brit used to transport-network shortfalls) positively encouraged. And a day’s hire extended through to the evening, allowing ample time for a thoroughly civilised French lunch break en route with (savoury) galettes and (sweet) crêpes galore. Pancakes for all courses is a concept close to my heart.’

– Bridget Downing, executive editor

Cairo, Egypt

‘In November, I visited Cairo and spent a few warm, autumnal days watching the light shift over the Art D’Égypte installations, set in the sand beneath the pyramids of Giza. I was particularly drawn to SolidNature and Studio PROBA’s organically shaped, naturally coloured stone sculptures. Seeing them positioned against the pyramids was both wondrous and surreal: two forms of stone, prehistoric in material yet composed millennia apart, held in quiet dialogue with one another. The experience was utterly mesmerising, leaving me feeling incredibly small in the face of such magnificence and scale. Other highlights across the city included losing track of time in the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and wandering through the calming gardens of Adam Henein’s gallery house.’

– Olly Mason, head of interiors

Évora, Portugal

‘When my sister moved to Lisbon in 2024, I dreamily imagined endless weekends of wandering, but life got in the way and it never quite happened; until this summer, when we managed to bring both our families together for ten scorching days in Alentejo, a more off-the-beaten-path part of Portugal, around 90 minutes east of Lisbon. We stayed in gloriously serene countryside, awash with olive groves and vineyards, occasionally popping into the medieval, walled UNESCO city of Évora for ice cream (Pezagno, delicious!). On one visit, we explored the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones), a 16th-century chapel within the Church of St Francis, built by Franciscan monks as a memento mori to inspire reflection on the transience of life. Its walls and columns are clad with thousands of strikingly arranged human skulls and bones, previously buried in Évora’s medieval cemeteries. Above the door, an inscription reads: “We bones are here, waiting for yours.” At the entrance to this macabre chapel is a simple modern mural by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira – a counterpoint to its meditation on mortality.’

– Anne Soward, production editor

Helsinki, Finland

‘While others escaped to hotter climes, last February, I decided to embrace the cold and wintry feel of Europe and headed further north, to Helsinki. It was one of the best travel decisions I ever made. The day was short, but the city was fun, and the cultural offerings were plentiful and welcoming. Helsinki was frozen – not that you would be bothered with the right clothes and shoes, especially in the city centre, where pavements are heated so that the snow doesn’t build up. A short ferry ride, breaking through the icy waters, took me to the magical Suomenlinna sea fortress - thank you, Laura Iloniemi, for the tip! I also explored the numerous art offerings the city has to offer, from the Amos Rex museum to the Temppeliaukio church of the rock. I stayed at a timber-framed hotel by the water, Solo Sokos Pier 4, paid a visit to the renovated Finlandia Hall, and enjoyed sticky Korvapuusti (Finnish cinnamon rolls) and warm and creamy salmon soup. As travel reviews often conclude, “would definitely recommend.”’

– Ellie Stathaki, architecture and environment director

Hydra, Greece

‘This year I’ve been lucky to visit great European capitals including Vienna, Paris and Athens, but somehow it’s my day on the small Greek island of Hydra that was most memorable. Big cities are filled with great things to do and see, but Hydra offers an escape from it all, with no cars, no museums, and practically no phone reception. And yet it still has everything you might possibly need on a nice autumn day: a lunch at a taverna followed by a dip in the sea, and a walk along the coastal path, suspended between the blue sky and the Mediterranean.’

– Léa Teuscher, sub-editor

Joshua Tree, USA

‘In May, I made the three-hour journey from Los Angeles into the Mojave Desert to Joshua Tree. It had long been on my list to visit, likely prompted by endless interviews with musicians who enthused about the desert’s mystical energy. There are no shortage of incredible architectural stays to book in the area, but after much deliberation, I settled on this geodesic dome, far enough away from civilisation to get the full experience (the drive back from dinner in the pitch black was a little hairy) but just twenty minutes from Joshua Tree National Park and the must-sees of the Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms. I loved every single thing about this trip. From the weird roadside stops along the route – a desert crochet museum? A shrine to fifties hairdressing? A park filled with many, many statues of Christ? – to dinner at The Copper Room, drinks at Mas o Menos and obligatory live music at Pioneertown institution, Pappy & Harriet’s (the nearby Red Dog Saloon was a little quieter when Pappy’s is packed). I can’t wait to return.’

– Charlotte Gunn, director of digital content

Kyoto, Japan

‘I loved visiting Kyoto this year, and discovering its rich history, gorgeous food and beautiful surroundings. The highlight, though, was being able to get to know some of the locals, who were as generous with their time as they are cultured, intelligent, and extremely kind.’

– Hannah Silver, art, culture, watches and jewellery editor

Lake Como, Italy

‘Until last year, I had never been to Italy; now, I can say I’ve been three times. A run of good fortune took me to Milan for Salone de Mobile, and Venice for an immersive exhibition hosted by Golden Goose. In addition, to mark the beginning of the summer season, I was invited to Lake Como to stay at Il Sereno’s new listening suite, designed by Patricia Urquiola. The lake in the foothills of the Alps took my breath away. It was scenery I had not seen before, and I was captivated by its beauty. There was an effortless air of Old Hollywood glamour and relaxed sophistication coupled with the calming nature of the lake, which makes the location entirely unique. I cannot wait to go back.’

– Tianna Williams, staff writer

Menorca, Spain

‘The Menorca Experimental hotel had been on my bucket list for years, and I finally made it there for a short break in September. Designed by Dorothée Meilichzon, the interiors strike a balance between playful colour and subtle Art Deco references, incorporating local designers and materials. It felt considered yet relaxed. The weather was still warm enough for sea swims in some of the clearest water I’ve seen in Europe, and it was easy to find quieter spots that felt untouched. There’s a quiet, understated rhythm to the island that encourages you to slow down, making it a perfect mid-season reset.’

– Cindy Parthonnaud, acting photography editor

Mérida, Mexico

‘I spent 10 days in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula this summer and enjoyed soaking up Mérida’s rich history, intense summer heat and xtabentún, the local firewater. The city is about 30 miles inland, meaning those craving a swim-up bar or large beach resort won’t find it here. Instead, they’ll discover a mix of unhurried streets, bustling markets, pretty boutiques and innovative cuisine that spotlights traditional Yucatec cooking. My husband and I checked in at Hotel Cigno, an elegant boutique property located in Mérida’s historic heart, before hiring a local guide to take us to Uxmal, one of the Mayan world’s most important sites, and an azure blue cenote, a naturally occurring limestone sinkhole that peppers the area. There was still an opportunity to hit the beach, though: an hour-ride taxi will take you straight to the coast, where you can take in tranquil waters, white sand beaches, bright-pink salt lakes and – my favourite – droves of flamingos.’

– Anna Fixsen, U.S. editor

Miami, USA

‘I came to Miami for the Grand Prix – where Lego had built ten fully drivable cars – but stayed for the art deco architecture, palm-lined boulevards and viscerally cinematic sunsets. Miami’s expansion in the 1920s and 30s left it with a remarkable concentration of art deco buildings, which I completely fell in love with. A stroll down Ocean Drive – one of the finest showcases of the style – took me hours, slowed by pastel façades and kitsch vintage cars that demanded to be photographed. Little Havana, shaped by Cuban émigrés after the 1959 revolution, is home to cigar shops, graffiti tributes to Celia Cruz and Old’s Havana Cuban Bar & Cocina, which, with its yellow walls and mojito production line, is an institution. So, too, is Delilah – swathed in pink velvet and favoured by A-listers – though in an entirely different vein. Miami is a place I’d return to in a heartbeat.’

– Anna Solomon, digital writer

Nesjavellir, Iceland

‘My yearly travel mainly comprises the movement between Milan, Paris and New York for fashion week (and the freneticism and overstimulation these trips bring), so when I’m not working I seem to be attracted towards the vast and the desolate – Lanzarote has become my go-to escape, and this spring I loved losing myself in its strange, moonlike landscapes once again. Though it was another otherworldly (and volcanic) island that was my favourite trip of 2025: Iceland, which I visited with 66 North last month (the outerwear brand was founded on the island a century ago). I have been a couple of times before, though each time it is surprising in its vastness and scale: speeding across the snow-covered mountain ridge Thórsmörk – named after the Norse god Thor – on off-roading buggies was a truly cinematic experience (and the perfect release). We spent the second night at the Ion Adventure Hotel, a Brutalist box on stilts that looks out over the geothermal fields of Nesjavellir – in the silence, it was my best night’s sleep of the year.’

– Jack Moss, fashion and beauty features director

Seoul, South Korea

‘About two hours from Seoul, in the mountains of Wonju, Museum SAN (Space Art Nature) heralds an architectural feat by Tadao Ando: a 25-metre-wide subterranean dome beneath the museum’s flower garden, topped with an oculus rising more than seven metres high. Titled Ground, it was commissioned to accompany Antony Gormley’s exhibition Drawing on Space.’

– Jason Hughes, creative director

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

‘I spend much of my year bouncing around beautiful design-led hotels. But at least once a year, I make it my mission to step out of this bubble as a reminder of why I love to travel in the first place. And this year, my trip to Uzbekistan was a welcome reset. It’s not a destination known for luxury, but with tourism on the rise, you can feel the energy in Tashkent’s creative pockets and across Samarkand and Bukhara, which just hosted its inaugural biennale. From the staggering detail of the Islamic architecture to the small, genuinely local boutique hotels, there’s an incredible history and a rawness that was not just compelling, but a reminder that stepping away from the familiar is not just refreshing, but important to keep your curiosity alive.’

– Lauren Ho, travel director

Tokyo, Japan

‘Tokyo had been calling for some time, and this October I was finally able to answer. Japan’s capital is an urban sprawl of ritual, contrast, beauty and tradition, where even the smallest details feel deliberate and meaningful. It was my first visit, and I tried to stay fully present, absorbing as much of the city’s energy as possible; yet I still feel I barely scratched the surface. There are countless moments I hold onto, but one stands out: waking to a bright, clear morning and, from my hotel room on the 34th floor of Fairmont Tokyo, spotting Mount Fuji in the distance. It appeared as a majestic presence on the horizon, wishing the city a good day.’

– Sofia de la Cruz, travel editor

Vienna, Austria

‘Vienna is a really great city for a short getaway, especially for those interested in design. The city is filled with hidden gems, such as the interiors and ambience of Café Prückel, located just across the street from the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK). Be sure to check out the numerous storefronts designed by Hans Hollein throughout the city, including the iconic façade of the Retti candle shop. One of the highlights for me was the Roman Catholic church depicted above, built in the late 1970s by architect Viktor Hufnagl.’

– Sebastian Jordahn, head of video

Watamu, Kenya

‘Earlier this year, I travelled to Kenya and spent time in Watamu, a coastal town known for stunning white-sand beaches, coral reefs, mangroves and a large marine life. I was there for a private yoga retreat with a yoga company called Pana and stayed in a one-of-a-kind treehouse, Watamu Tree House, near Watamu Beach. Our treehouse retreat, built by the family who runs it, rises through the landscape, from the ground to the top floor, with shimmering coloured glass mosaics. Each day in Watamu began with yoga in the studio at the top of the building, which offered quiet and perspective. Practising yoga above the ground, with the sea nearby and trees in the distance, felt grounding. Fresh vegetarian meals formed the core of each day, as each meal came with coconut water and juices made fresh each morning.’

– Jamilah Rose-Roberts, social media editor

‘Atmosphere is as important as function,’ declare the RA! team. It’s a statement that permeates the studio’s operation, and it is central to its ethos that recognises emotion to be as strong a power in architecture as technical performance. Co-founders Cristóbal Ramírez de Aguilar, Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar and Santiago Sierra explain: ‘We understand architecture as a sequence of spaces not as a static object, but as a transition.'

Meet RA!, the architecture studio from Mexico City

They continue: 'Narratives are what make space memorable, so we focus on building through a series of emotions. Our process has a cinematic quality: through a series of illustrations, we create a storyboard of theoretical emotions that guide the design.’

RA! was founded in 2017 and has achieved a series of recognitions in its career so far, including a prestigious Félix Candela award in 2019 for its proposal for a Museo Nacional de Arquitectura. ‘Working on that project helped us establish many of the core principles that define how we conceive architecture today,’ the partners add.

RA’s portfolio showcases a broad range of typologies, spanning architecture, but also editorial design, film, art, interiors and construction. It is this polymathic attitude that keeps them active and interested, ‘working within a continuous loop of tools that move from analogue to digital and post-digital to communicate our ideas’. All these approaches feed into their design process and ongoing efforts to convey the essence of their concepts into space. ‘Each typology nourishes the others, allowing us to gain a broader understanding of the relationships between different disciplines,’ they say.

Their first completed house, Casa LL in Tepoztlán, built in 2024, was a key moment for the firm, which took the opportunity to show off its contemporary aesthetic, drawing on Mexico’s local sensibilities. Its magical setting at the foot of the Aztec Tepozteco pyramid was captivating, and it pushed them to engage in a deep dialogue with the scheme’s wider surroundings.

RA! is developing projects in Mexico, the US, Costa Rica and Spain. A housing complex in the Tulum jungle will soon be joined by a slew of new work, from residential master plans to hotels, bars and private homes. And if you ask them what the architecture world needs more of, it’s not specific projects, but equality in the field. ‘We would love to see more female-led practices,’ they say. ‘We believe women have much to teach us in how architecture should be made and how a studio should be run. Mexico has a lot of emerging female practices, and many of them are important references for our own work.’

raarq.com

This article is part of a series on Mexican architects that appears in the January 2026 Next Generation issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 4 December 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

A cubist house, all concrete volumes and brutalist façades, is perched in Cumbres de Santa Fe, an exclusive high-end residential neighbourhood in Mexico City. Welcome to Casa Ailes, a home whose rawness and expressive arrangement offer a new take on contemporary living – one with a truly purpose-driven design, too.

Tour Casa Ailes, a cubist house full of brutalism and wonder

‘The inspiration behind Casa Ailes emerged from a deep analysis of the client’s activities and needs, a methodology that allowed us to develop creative and highly specific solutions. From the beginning, I conceived the residence as an urban refuge, a space protected toward the exterior yet open and generous on the inside,’ says Jaime Guzmán, founder and creative director of Jaime Guzmán Creative Group.

‘To achieve this, I proposed a completely solid façade facing the street, conceived not only as a gesture of privacy but also as an expressive architectural element. This façade is composed of six concrete volumes that structure playful interior spaces through the void they create, allowing us to explore contrasts between solids and openings that ultimately reinforce privacy.’

The overarching composition of the residence is defined by the contrast between solidity and lightness. The six protruding concrete volumes are further emphasised by a reflecting pool which mirrors their geometries on the ground.

Inside, Casa Ailes features interconnected social spaces, as well as a large family area, perfect for the clients’ teenage daughters to gather and use with their friends. The basement was designed to house a speakeasy with direct access to the street, allowing guests to enter independently.

A corridor connecting the entrance to the garden is one of Guzmán’s favourite elements, he explains: ‘From this space, the social areas are organised, natural light enters deeply into the interior, and a constant dialogue is established between the built structure and the openness toward views of nature.’

From here, there is access to the office, family room, main living area, and kitchen. The living room links up to both the central patio and the main terrace. The second floor hosts a solid block of marble stairs. On the upper level, the primary bedroom comprises concrete wall beams which nod to the materiality of the building. The third floor hosts an independent apartment for the eldest daughter, providing her with a degree of autonomy.

Guzmán wanted visitors to experience an immediate sense of impact, achieved through the dramatic façade of this characterful, cubist house. His aim was to spark curiosity and invite guests on a journey in which the interior gradually reveals itself in a museum-like way. He says: ’I wanted visitors to feel tranquillity, balance, and a sense of discovery; however, once inside, the space unfolds into a warm and open atmosphere’.

jaimeguzman.com

Concrete and steel have been a delicious combination when it comes to café and restaurant interior design this year (as seen, for starters, at Side A in San Francisco, Noisy Oyster in London and Call Me Ten in New Delhi). Bringing its own nuances to the genre in Mexico City’s hip Roma neighbourhood is the all-day Marne Café – an extension of the namesake bakery, also located in the area.

Marne Café, Mexico City

Dreamt up by the local Formant Studio, the 130 sq m venue delivers a medley of steel accents, dark wood and unfinished textures, creating a visual rhythm between polished and raw, warm and cold, exposed and concealed. ‘The project is a celebration of timeless design with a contemporary approach,’ explain Alejandro Valencia and Verónica Sojo, architects at Formant Studio.

While it would be easy to sum up Marne Café as brutalist or industrial for its materials and finishes, every furnishing found here is of praiseworthy bespoke design, while details are of exceptional character. ‘The predominantly neutral atmosphere is enlivened by colour accents that interact with the upholstery and contemporary art adorning the walls,’ say Valencia and Sojo.

Expressive and functional forms define the two dedicated areas that make up the venue. Guests enter straight into the café-restaurant, punctuated by a counter overlooking director-style chairs in steel and leather alongside marble-topped tables. Meanwhile, the wine bar is found at the back, where banquettes, sturdy wooden chairs and tables sit under the soft flow of a round paper lampshade. Speakers suspended from the ceiling and metal-framed photographs further enhance the atmosphere.

Rotating breakfast, lunch and dinner menus are paired with an extensive wine and cocktail list. Marne Café specialises in bread in all its forms, from the perfectly laminated croissant served alongside a scrambled egg topped with soy sauce-marinated salmon roe and crème fraîche, to hogaza de masa madre (sourdough loaf) accompanied by a scrumptious crab cake.

Marne Café is located at Av Sonora 92, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Mexico City, Mexico.

Mexican home Casa el Espino sits on a gentle slope nestled between two ravines that connect a pine forest with a lowland jungle. The residence sits on the cusp of Valle de Bravo, a small town on Lake Avándaro, west of Mexico City. The project was designed by Mexican architecture firm Soler Orozco Arquitectos (SOA), with interiors by Dirección, and was designed to take its cues from its surroundings.

Discover the inspiration behind this tranquil Mexican home

‘Our inspiration was the territory, the landscape and the topography. We focused on how to position the project over and into the ravine and how to integrate the territory in the project through the colours of the earth, the framing of the views and a serene sense of place,’ explain the architects at SOA.

The residence sits all on one level and each material element reflects the surrounding landscape and was chosen for its timeless quality, such as concrete, stone, and wood. The design balances shadow and light creating a warm, yet cooling space. Anchoring the home is an espino tree which survived construction and stands tall between the terrace and pool.

Entering through the courtyard area, the house unfolds in a series of flowing interiors. To begin, the kitchen, dining and living area seamlessly blend into each other, allowing for an open social hub. The furniture reflects the architecture with sofas and tables crafted from linen, cotton and stone, adding to the raw and honest space.

This entry sequence is the architects’ favourite element in the space, they explain to Wallpaper*: ‘This is the point when you enter the house and you have a first glance of the landscape framed in its entirety by the architecture. The hall acts as a divide between the public and the private areas, making it a core space of the house.’

A flat-roofed volume organises three bedrooms along a corridor. The primary suite takes in its ravine vista, while at the opposite end of the corridor, is a covered terrace overlooking a rain-fed water feature.

On the other side of the central courtyard is the guest pavilion with two bedrooms. The atmosphere is cool and calm, rooted in raw honesty with a hint of brutalist flair, with grey stone underfoot and the cocooning tactility of the interior walls.

‘We want visitors to feel a sense of discovery of the place and the project itself, say the architects. ‘They should feel a sense of human scale, a calm, welcoming space where the architecture, the interiors and the landscape are integrated through spatial composition and a thorough selection of materials.’

The 2025 Oberlander Prize has just been announced, and the covered accolade this year goes to Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his studio, Grupo de Diseño. The practice, centred around the founder's motto, 'We have a human right to open space,' was founded by Schjetnan in 1977 and has been a leading voice in the landscape industry with projects in its own country and beyond ever since.

The biennial recognition - officially the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize - includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities for each winner. The prize was founded to promote the role of landscape work across the globe, as well as honour the legacy of the grande dame of the industry, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Set up in 2014, the award celebrated the work of Julie Bargmann in 2021, and the late Kongjian Yu in 2023.

Explore the work of the 2025 Oberlander Prize winner

Schjetnan's prolific studio is powered by its deep knowledge in the field, spearheaded by the founder, who studied his subject with passion and detail - he has been awarded several grants and industry recognitions over his career so far, including not one, but two honourary PhDs - from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Léon and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.

Mixing Mexican modernist architecture influences with the country's contemporary needs as well as wider culture, from art to pre-Hispanic myths, Schjetnan has been a vocal advocate for Mexico’s 'mosaic of cultures' and diversity. He has also served as the first head of urban and housing design (1972-77) at INFONAVIT, the government initiative providing workers’ housing.

GDU was founded by Schjetnan, together with architect José Luiz Pérez as his principal partner and their respective wives, Irma Schjetnan and Letty Pérez. Their portfolio includes, from the 684-acre Xochimilco Ecological Park and La Mexicana Park in the Santa Fe District, both in Mexico, to projects in the US, such as Union Point Park in Oakland, CA (the practice's first in the US) and San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio, TX.

When asked about the studio's core, he explains: 'I think, first of all, [it is] the concept of culture. The concept that the landscape is really about culture,' adding, 'if you want to develop a site or a new area, you have to start with a park [...] There is a human right to open space.'

The 2025 Oberlander Prize jury citation states: 'In a time of rapidly developing megacities and cultural homogenization, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), founded and led by Mario Schjetnan, is a strong voice for social engagement and environmental justice in tandem with the art of landscape architecture. Their work bridges the ethical and the aesthetic, advocating for access to nature in the city as a fundamental human right,' adding: 'GDU’s portfolio of built work delivers tangible impact and a model for delivering public landscapes as essential infrastructure in a rapidly urbanising world—home to more than half of the world’s population.'

Mario Schjetnan, in his own words

Charles A. Birnbaum, The Cultural Landscape Foundation's president and CEO, said on the announcement: 'For more than 50 years, Mario Schjetnan’s unwavering commitment to the idea of a human right to have access to open space and the necessity for incorporating cultural values in his work have served as foundational requirements in shaping and managing an equitable built environment for all. For many decades, Schjetnan he has held numerous academic appointments, and he and GDU have created a diverse and innovative body of projects, and advanced theories and initiated actions for creating a more just public realm.'

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a new monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A Neutra landmark

Perched in the Pacific Palisades, this landmark of Californian modernism went on the market in September. It was designed by Richard Neutra in 1948 for Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study Houses programme – an experimental post-war housing initiative. Neutra’s only contribution to the series embodies midcentury ideals with natural materials like birchwood and mahogany, and encompasses forward-thinking features including a prefabricated utility core for plumbing and heating. The original owners lived here for over five decades, commissioning additions such as a guest house, but the property retains its original finishes, integrated glazing and indoor-outdoor flow. Located near Will Rogers Beach and the Eames Foundation, Case Study House #20 presents a rare opportunity to own an authentic piece of Neutra’s legacy and California’s architectural history.

A midcentury gem

The Norton House by Buff, Straub & Hensman – key figures in Southern California’s postwar residential boom – has also come on the market. Built in a wooded gully in Pasadena in 1954, the house exemplifies the era’s lightweight, nature-integrated architecture: it features terraces, decks and bridges suspended over a central stream, while a post-and-beam Douglas fir structure enables open-plan living. Finally, large glass panels flood the space with light and frame woodland views. Still-present original details include cork flooring, built-in seating, and a concrete block fireplace that separates living spaces. While the kitchen has been updated, the home retains its authentic midcentury character.

A cottage transformation

The Black and Stone project by London-based Mallett reimagines a derelict 1930s farmer’s cottage in Perthshire, combining heritage conservation with contemporary design. Rather than demolish, the team restored the stone shell before inserting a new timber-framed structure inspired by Norwegian hytter (cabins). The dark-stained larch exterior contrasts with the pale original stone, while salvaged material has been repurposed – most notably in a kitchen feature wall – and existing window openings realigned to frame key views. The former three-room cottage has been transformed into a four-bedroom family home, blending rugged Scottish charm with modern architectural sensibilities.

A clifftop retreat

Casa Piscina del Cielo, a dramatic coastal retreat by Zozaya Arquitectos, is perched high above the Pacific near Zihuatanejo. The private residence includes two bedrooms, a guest wing, and multiple indoor-outdoor living zones – from a cinema and gym to breezy lounges. The showstopper is a 27m-long pool that extends over the cliff edge, with a transparent floor panel giving swimmers the surreal experience of floating above the ocean. The home is carved into native rock, with a palapa-thatched roof and lush landscaping. Inside, the open-plan layout connects directly to the pool terrace, offering sweeping sea views and a profound sense of place.

A Le Corbusier icon

Though it was snapped up quickly, a duplex apartment in Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille recently hit the market – offering a rare glimpse inside one of the 20th century’s most important Brutalist buildings, now a Unesco World Heritage site (Wallpaper* was also recently invited to meet residents in their homes). Completed between 1947 and 1952, the building is based on Le Corbusier’s 'modulor' system – a scale of proportions derived from the human body and the golden ratio. This 100 sq m, two-bedroom unit spans two levels, with an open-plan living and dining space illuminated by a glazed façade. The current owners have embraced Le Corbusier’s signature palette, using primary-coloured panels on walls and doors.

A concrete sanctuary

Stealth House by Apollo Architects is an enigmatic residence in Tokyo defined by its monolithic concrete exterior – which conceals a surprisingly lush and luxurious retreat. Designed with privacy and security in mind, the home features an expansive infinity pool and terrace that flow from the main living area. Inside, the design embraces Japanese minimalism with airy volumes and refined materials. A built-in garage accommodates eight cars, with a dedicated car lounge that doubles as a gallery, while the basement is home to a gym, golf room and karaoke lounge, all lit by a sunken courtyard.

A coastal monolith

Designed by McLean Quinlan, Bay House is a robust and elegant modern home nestled into the North Devon coastline. Curving gently along the site’s natural contours, the structure blends into its landscape with a resilient, monolithic presence. Clad in Dorset Purbeck stone, the 550 sq m residence unfolds over three levels, with expansive windows and balconies framing views of sea and farmland. The design prioritises energy efficiency, featuring high-performance insulation, airtight construction, a ground source heat pump, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and photovoltaic solar panels. The result is a rugged yet refined residence, blending environmental consciousness with contemporary design.

A captivating catch-up

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

London always reaches peak business in September. Beyond the exciting events that come with the annual design happenings of the month, the start of autumn often also sees creatives from across the globe flocking to the capital to see, experience, and meet up. Concéntrico's director, Javier Peña Ibáñez, was in town this week, celebrating the launch of new book on the Logroño architectural festival – and, with it, marking the fair's ten-year anniversary. A breakfast catch-up with Javier offered the opportunity to reflect on the northern Spanish city's world event, which has grown stronger with each edition – and on architecture festivals and biennales as a whole. Looking forward to seeing what's in store for Concéntrico 2026.

A theatrical triumph

Hannah Silver, Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor

I loved watching Andrew Lincoln and Alicia Vikander in The Lady from the Sea at the Bridge Theatre this week. A retelling of the Ibsen classic, it is tense and beautifully constructed throughout, with one of the best and most surprising set designs I’ve seen in a long time.

Mexico comes to Sketch

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

I don’t need an excuse to visit the eccentric dreamscape that is Sketch in Soho, so when I heard that Ago Projects had taken residency for the dining destination’s (‘restaurant’ feels reductive) annual art and design exhibition, I jumped on the Central Line to have a look. With '¡hola, London!', Sketch has transformed its technicolour reception area into the semi-desert landscape of San Miguel de Allende. Installation pieces were created in collaboration with Mexican studio Mestiz, which has worked with local artisans to bring to life a fantastical, folklore-inspired collection of benches, lamps and objects. The highlight? As if Sketch’s ever-Instagrammable space-age toilet capsules weren’t surreal enough, they’re now home to two enormous snake sculptures. The installation will run until 11 November.

A taste of Spain

Sofia de la Cruz, Travel Editor

I’ve long admired Nieves Barragán Mohacho’s Sabor, a one-Michelin-starred institution in Mayfair and a benchmark of Spanish cuisine. The Basque chef's new venture, Legado, takes her proficiency and flavours east, tracing the Iberian Peninsula from Galicia to Andalusia, with stops in the islands.

Every meal begins with a ‘three sip serve’ – mine was a peach vermut in a beautiful custom ceramic, designed to sharpen the palate in three measured tastes. At the heart of the kitchen are two monumental traditional ovens, hand-built in Madrid by Jumaco & Maestro, that turn out milk-fed lamb from Zamora and suckling pig from Segovia.

I particularly loved Barragán Mohacho’s take on tortilla, reimagined with skate wing and a silken mojo verde – a Canarian coriander sauce that adds both brightness and bite. I also couldn’t resist the black fideuà with rock shrimp and alioli, which took me straight back to my childhood summers in Alicante. The monkfish tempura with chilli jam alioli was another standout – crisp, light, with just the right edge of heat. Barragán Mohacho herself was leading the pass when I visited, calm but ever-attentive. When I told her it felt like being at home, she smiled and said, ‘That’s exactly what we strive for.’

An island escape

Anna Fixsen, US Editor

Sweep over a map of the Atlantic Ocean and you might just miss the Azores, a cluster of nine volcanic islands about 1,000 miles off the coast of Portugal. While the archipelago may not be on your travel radar, it should be.

I’ve just returned from Ponta Delgada, the Azorean capital on the island of São Miguel – our home base while my husband and I explored the natural wonders the isle has to offer, from rolling countryside lined with the island’s famed hydrangea bushes, to ocean waters teeming with whales and dolphins, to geothermal hot springs (a first for this native Minnesotan: noshing on sweetcorn freshly boiled in a geyser).

We also spent lazy afternoons in Ponta Delgada’s historic core, sipping Especial – the local brew – stuffing ourselves with seafood, and checking out local historic sites. If you go, don’t miss Museu Carlos Machado, housed in a 16th-century convent and featuring an intriguing collection of 19th- and early-20th-century taxidermy that feels straight out of a Wes Anderson film. And to think – there are eight more islands to explore!

A beguiling book fair

Gabriel Annouka, Senior Designer

While out of the office, I ended up at the ICA for the Glue book fair – a welcome pause from the usual city chaos. Inside, spread across two floors, were friends, past colleagues and collaborators, and a dazzling spread of publishing projects everywhere you looked.

Highlights (and purchases) included The Scar as Archive by Stigmata Publishing; a zine on Le Grand Divertissement Royal à Versailles by Fiontán Moran; “ ” Quotation Mark Quotation Mark by Adam Gibbons and Eva Wilson; Outsider/s by Oli Raptor (Bonavarda); Doesn’t Exist: Fashion and Cinema, A Tribute to John Waters; and the new edition of A Line That Forms a Volume, the annual publication of the MA Graphic Media Design course at LCC.

In the gallery, across two walls and a glass cabinet, a collaborative project by Hot Potato – with posters designed by Studio Safar – took over the space. Their work invites the photography community to contribute and respond, tracing the shifting landscape of media coverage on Palestine and reflecting on how that coverage shapes the arts.

Nestled between rock, sea and sky, this clifftop retreat on Mexico's Pacific Coast is nothing if not dramatic. Of course, when a client comes asking for 'something extraordinary,' there is no reason to hold back. This was exactly the case for Zozaya Arquitectos, who were invited to create a private retreat in their home town of Zihuatanejo that 'would defy convention, a structure that felt singular and paradigm-breaking.'

Casa Piscina del cielo, a dramatic clifftop retreat on Mexico's Pacific Coast

The result was Casa Piscina del cielo, a generous home sprawled across 1,900 sq m, and including two generous bedrooms, an independent guest wing, several indoor and outdoor living spaces, a wealth of leisure rooms, such as a cinema and a gym, and supporting areas for storage and services. The star protagonist among them, however, is without a doubt the long, blue swimming pool that juts out of the main home and towards the ocean, strikingly hanging off the cliff.

The home was conceived to be woven into the cliff and green surroundings, ensuring it marks its presence with a few distinctive features, but at the same time feels unobtrusive from the mainland, and does not jar in its natural setting. The entrance emerges from the ground among native foliage, responding to the land's natural contours.

Walking through a central courtyard off the main entrance, visitors are guided into the heart of the home: an expansive living space, including a kitchen, dining area and terrace. It all sits under a palapa - a traditional Mexican roofing structure often made of palm leaves - leading to the pool deck and the 27-meter-long body of water looking out towards the horizon.

The architects, headed by practice founder Enrique Zozaya, write of the experience of standing on the pool deck: 'Through a window embedded in the pool’s floor, you can watch the waves crash against the cliffs below—creating the surreal sensation of floating, as if the sea and sky had merged beneath your feet.'

The relationship between indoors and outdoors is prominent throughout, offering both a sense of space and a connection with the elements in this part of the world, where the climate is pleasant almost year-round.

Landscape design by Taller Entorno is crucial in creating this feeling of effortless flow and in crafting the outdoors to both connect with the interior but also the wider environment. The architects explain: 'The landscaping reinforces the illusion that the house has always belonged here, that nature simply shaped itself around it.'

Sustainability was among the architects' considerations too, ensuring the house has passive heating, cooling and ventilation, uses environment-sensitive materials such as the palapa, and a water treatment plant for greywater recycles greywater for irrigation.

'This house does not merely occupy the land—it listens to it, interprets it, and elevates it,' the architects conclude.

A new, brutalist Mexican house is set amongst the hilly landscape of Valle de Bravo, a town about two hours south-west of Mexico City. Covering a floor area of 735 sq m, the home, designed by Sordo Madaleno, is broken up into a series of two-storey pavilions, four in all, set alongside a large main living space, tucked into a sloping site. The linear structure runs east-west, looking north across a valley.

Tour this brutalist Mexican house, broken up into six pavilions

The residence has been designed to follow the contours of the site, with each of the four pavilions entered from the upper level, connected to the main volume of the building via walkways. Each also has a balcony on the upper level, providing treetop views for the occupants of these four identically shaped self-contained bedroom units.

The main living pavilion is flanked by a service pavilion, a single-storey rectangular structure that houses a service kitchen, utility spaces and staff sleeping quarters. The architects have used a pigmented concrete throughout to give the building its distinctive reddish hue, closely matching the local soil.

In addition to the external circulation paths, one key aspect of the design are the curved walls facing the hillside. In the four smaller pavilions, these walls enclose an internal courtyard, whilst presenting an external view of a closed, fortification-like structure.

In the main space, this curved wall is referenced internally by two large stone-clad forms which lead into the primary kitchen as well as conceal bathrooms and cloakrooms on each side. Above this is a large roof terrace, reached by an external staircase.

The main pavilion provides some of the most impressive views from the site, with a glazed north elevation characterised by double-height sliding glass doors that open up the interior to the terrace. A slender lap pool and hot tub mark the edge of the house, beyond which the terrain drops away into the forested valley. Green tiles in the pool create a naturalistic hue to the water and reflections.

Inside, wooden floors, doors and cabinetry are paired with the shuttered concrete of the structure and the stone-clad curved elements, while a deep overhang creates a sheltered outdoor seating area.

According to architect Fernando Sordo Madaleno, ‘The main intention of the project was to create a tension between nature and architecture, allowing this dynamic to shape the spatial experience for the inhabitants.’

The combination of the views and the topography have shaped a house that feels deeply integrated into its surroundings. As Sordo Madaleno notes, ‘The house is divided into module-like pavilions making the experience about being immersed in the surrounding nature, rather than simply being in a house within nature.'

The studio, which has an outpost in London as well as its main base in Mexico City, is a third-generation family firm. The current director, Fernando Sordo Madaleno, is son of Javier Sordo Madaleno, who in turn is the son of Juan Sordo Madaleno, who established the original firm in 1937.

His collaborations included working with Luis Barragán, Ricardo Legorreta, and Francisco J. Serrano, establishing a strong modernist tradition that continues to this day.

SordoMadaleno.com

If there’s one thing that we at Wallpaper* do well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a new monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A pink desert house in Mexico

Casa Cardona, designed by Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana, stands out in the arid landscape of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, with its pink façade. Architect Sergio Padilla Contreras drew inspiration from the shades of the desert, but the home's vibrant exterior – which evokes the hues of prickly pear cactus fruit – is more than aesthetic: it reflects light and shadow throughout the day, echoing the natural shifts of its environment. Casa Cardona embraces the architectural principle of ‘mass over void’, forming a protective, introspective shell that prioritises interior experiences of silence, light and shadow. Strategically placed openings allow sunlight to filter across the interiors, while a tree, integrated into the living space, completes the sensory ambience with texture and scent.

A coastal Kent cabin

Nina Tolstrup and Jack Mama of Studiomama transformed a modest chalet on the Kent coast into a warm retreat for their friends, chefs Sam and Sam Clark of London restaurant Moro. The 33 sq m cabin makes the ever-changing sea view its focal point – the coastal light enters through a north-facing picture window framing the water, a glazed rear door, and skylights. Wrapped entirely in thermally-treated pine, the interior feels simultaneously minimal and inviting. Every detail has been meticulously designed for functionality and harmony, from bunk seating and under-bed storage to a built-in, curved kitchen that recedes into the timber walls. The result is a calming space that feels much larger than its footprint.

A floating modernist villa

Villa Kogelhof, designed by Dutch architect Paul de Ruiter, is a striking modernist residence in Kamperland, the Netherlands. It may sound counterintuitive given its concrete, glass and steel construction, but Villa Kogelhof was designed to blend seamlessly with the landscape and sky. Suspended on two concrete supports, the villa appears to float above a 25-hectare nature reserve. This land was once farmland, but has been rewilded as part of a national ecological initiative (permission to build on the site was only granted if it was restored to its pre-agricultural state). Featuring floor-to-ceiling glazing offering sweeping views of the flat Dutch scenery and North Sea, Villa Kogelhof’s minimalism is both dramatic and non-intrusive.

A midcentury bungalow

Osler House is a midcentury Vancouver bungalow originally designed by Canadian architect Ron Thom in 1951. It was renovated by Scott & Scott Architects in 2024, a project which aimed to preserve its original spirit while updating it for contemporary living. This was done with a full frame-up rebuild, along with the addition of a terrace, swimming pool and pool house. That said, much of the internal layout was retained, with only the 1982 staircase reconfigured. A concrete brick hearth provides privacy from the street, while cedar decking and Douglas fir interiors reflect both the home’s location and its midcentury roots. In fact, Scott & Scott was inspired by archival images of the home and used local wood construction techniques to echo Thom’s original design approach.

Donald Wexler’s Palm Springs home

The Wexler House, designed in 1954 by renowned Palm Springs modernist Donald Wexler, was both a family home and a design laboratory. Originally built for the architect and his wife Marilynn, the post-and-beam structure explored architectural concepts that would later influence his steel-framed prefabs. Despite its architectural pedigree, the home eventually fell into disrepair – until Daniel Patrick Giles, a fashion and fragrance entrepreneur, bought and restored it in 2007. Working with Wexler (before his 2015 passing) and architect Lance O’Donnell, Giles led a meticulous restoration. Although he sold the house in 2015, he bought it back six years later, and continued his project.

The last Alvar Aalto building in France

Technically, Maison Louis Carré, Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s only remaining building in France, is now a museum, having been recently restored and reopened in this capacity. But it used to be the home of French art dealer Louis Carré, who commissioned it in the 1950s. It was completed in 1957, overseen by Aalto’s wife, Elissa, and local architect Marcel Roux. Located in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, about 40km from Paris, the home was designed as both a private residence and a space to exhibit Carré’s art collection, and exemplifies Aalto’s holistic design approach, which integrates architecture, furniture and landscape.

A home of Indian modernism

The Kanade brothers – Shankar and Navnath – crafted a quiet but powerful legacy of modernist architecture in India, rooted in material honesty, contextual design and social consciousness. Their shared home in the village of Nagaj is an embodiment of these values. Designed by Navnath, the house is built from local laterite stone, with minimal finishes and clever spatial sequencing. It is a modernist structure that is deeply Gandhian in ethos – simple, with exposed materials and minimal ornamentation. Navnath, who passed away in 2024, believed air and people should move freely through space. The home reflects this, with fluid transitions between areas and human-scaled courtyards.

The idea of ‘balance’ sits at the heart of Estudio Ome’s work. The young landscape architecture firm from Mexico City, founded in 2018 by the Franco-Mexican duo Hortense Blanchard and Susana Rojas Saviñón, has always questioned ‘how we interact with nature and where to intervene to get the perfect balance between what is built and what is alive’, they explain. Bringing together different elements and consolidating learnings from diverse aspects of the creative and physical world has been a powerful tool for the pair.

Enter the world of Estudio Ome in Mexico

This duality appears in various other aspects of their work – they combine practice and theory, using drawing as a means for exploration and learning, as well as a means to shape a place; and they seek to unite art and ecology. They explain: ‘Art as the search for beauty, for the poetic; our goal is to provoke, even through a subtle detail, an experience, a source of inspiration and interpretation. We define ecology from an ethical perspective as the utmost respect towards nature; each time we have a commission, we ask ourselves: is the place going to be better with our intervention or is it better to do nothing?’

As a result of their delicate and at the same time impactful designs, the awards have kept coming. Among them, the pair has scooped ‘Outstanding Project’ at the 2025 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP); the top gong at the 2024 Rethinking the Future Awards in the Private Landscape category; and a special mention at the 2023 Landezine International Landscape Award’s Private Gardens category.

This has also afforded them a growing portfolio of international work. Working on both sides of the Atlantic, they have been broadening their practice in Mexico and France, expanding this year to the UK too. The 2022 project, The Ruins, a private garden in Mexico, has been central to the evolution of their practice.

Here, they worked with a series of existing ecosystems and hydrology management strategies for harvesting run-off water from the site to create a thriving composition of stone, water and planting. It is a design that does not represent a single moment in time. Every four months, they return to it for maintenance, which adds to their deep understanding of the place and enriches its present and future.

The five-strong studio is currently working on an art foundation project with Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, for which they have been developing their landscape solution in a rich dialogue with the buildings on site. ‘From the very beginning, the process has been shaped by an accumulation of notes from the clients and architects. We have been redrawing the architectural project, its materiality, and changing the qualities of light. This methodology has allowed us to have bold concepts that can be rapidly sketched,’ they say.

‘We have included drawings of plants observed at the Botanical Garden of the National University. In these, our intention is to show the foliage, the patterns, the movement of the stem, density, and the movement in time, qualities often difficult to express in a project presentation otherwise. For us, hand drawing brings movement, brings the notion of time, and isn’t that what landscape is all about?’

Even though they are optimistic about the future of their field, Rojas Saviñón and Blanchard flag the need for more opportunities for education among landscape professionals and their clients: ‘In Mexico, where we have been working for the past eight years, what’s missing is more education, more possibilities to study. There is a growing number of people interested in the field, and there is work. Hand-in-hand with this comes the perception of the profession. Often, expectations are reduced to planting palettes. Our hope is that through broader visibility of the possibilities that landscape holds, richer collaborations will arise.’

In a sea of chalky white residences, Casa Cardona by architects Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana stands out for its vibrant, dusty pink façade. The cubic design is rooted in its environment, an arid desert landscape within the northern Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, responding to the surrounding nature and ever-changing light.

Inside Casa Cardona by Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana

Sergio Padilla Contreras, founder of the Mexican architecture studio was inspired by the Potosino desert, with the desire to capture and preserve its unique characteristics. ‘The house's inspiration springs from two phenomena: the ephemeral nature of colour in the endemic plants of this arid landscape – plants that endure with dignity, strength, and beauty – and the rhythm of family life, [all in harmony] with the powerful movement of the sun along the Tropic of Cancer, where the project is located,’ says Padilla Contreras.

The house's facade, a deep pink with purple undertones, is not a simple aesthetic choice, but rather an ‘emotional and territorial’ response. ‘It vibrates with its surroundings, shifting, igniting, and fading with the desert sunsets, conversing with shaded tones much like the desert shrubs.

'The form follows a clear and necessary principle for the territory: mass over void. The architecture stands as a solid, introspective, with an almost mineral presence –shielding from the outside while enclosing moments of light, shadow, and silence,’ the architect continues.

The project began as a real estate commission intended for the market. ‘It is modest in scale (165 sq m) and had to be within a budget that aligned with sales standards and with the particular dynamics of the family who would inhabit it: a mother, her young son, and the mother-in-law – three generations, two different families, under one roof,’ Padilla Contreras tells Wallpaper*.

Working within these constraints, the practice sought to design something rooted in human connection. ‘Turning an economic and market-driven condition into a project of emotional depth and meaning was the real challenge. I relied on the essence of what is freely given – light, shadow, wind – and on a sensitive response to the [needs] of its inhabitants.’

Strategically oriented openings filter sunlight into the space, the light changing during the day and throughout the seasons. Even the colour of the walls – inspired by the fruit of a prickly pear cactus – shifts with the sun’s trajectory, giving the house a visual identity that is intimately tied to its context. A fruitful interior marker is a tree, carefully integrated into the living space, adding texture, colour and scent.

Padilla Contreras wants visitors to connect with the colour of the home as more than a decorative gesture. ‘In the Mexican desert, prickly pears are seasonal fruits, brief bursts of colour; here, I am extending that fleeting presence into an eternal now.

'I want people to realise that beauty can be severe and austere, and that colour itself can be a radical statement.’

His favourite part of the project is how the sun interacts with the colourful walls. ‘There is a very specific moment at both sunrise and sunset when the grazing light touches the interior of the social area, and the colour shifts with the sun’s movement: from pink to wine, then to purple and deep violet, against the contrast of the blue sky,’ Padilla Contreras says.

‘If light, shadow, and colour are part of the house, then that is my favourite part. I like to think that in these quiet spaces, architecture ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.’

sensacionaldinamica.mx

Amid the emerald and turquoise sweep of the Riviera Maya in Mexico, Rosewood Mayakoba offers a different kind of night out; one led not by cocktails or candlelit tables, but by its spa. Sense, A Rosewood Spa, occupies its own island, reached via the Puente del Balneario, and is already known as a retreat-within-a-retreat. Now, it extends its hours into the quiet hours, introducing the Akbal Series – ‘night’ in Mayan – a moonlit programme running from 8 pm until midnight. While most spas are winding down, Sense is just beginning.

Rosewood Mayakoba introduces Akbal Series

The Akbal Series unfolds as a set of after-dark rituals, immersive treatments, and one-off pop-ups designed to promote rest, regulate the nervous system, and reconnect with natural rhythms. Jungle sounds and the low pulse of nearby cenotes mingle with the starlit sky, expanding the spa experience into something cosmic.

Guests can book à la carte or work with a wellness concierge to create a bespoke itinerary. Options range from moonlit breathwork by the spa pool – easing cortisol levels and activating the parasympathetic nervous system – to wind-down yoga and quartz sound bowl therapy, or an ice bath on the cenote deck followed by a warm soak and sound massage. There’s also a Mexican hot chocolate workshop, harnessing the serotonin- and melatonin-rich properties of cacao.

Once a month, Sense will host its Full Moon Celebration Bar (upcoming dates: Sept. 7, Oct. 6, Nov. 5, Dec. 4), serving cocktails built from ingredients said to flourish under full moons: tomato, chile, cucumber, melon, watermelon, and pumpkin. Evening spa access for Akbal participants includes hydrotherapy circuits, relaxation lounges, a yoga pavilion, strength and cardio studios, and the sensory Kuxtal Garden. For a deeper immersion, eight overnight Wellness Suites come with unlimited class access and the guidance of a dedicated wellbeing butler.

The Sense Spa at Rosewood Mayakoba is located at Carretera Federal Cancún Supermanzana Km. 298, 77710 Playa del Carmen, Q.R., Mexico.

Hotel restaurants rarely escape the shadow of the properties they serve. Too often, they’re treated as a guest convenience rather than a local draw, and it takes more than a rotating ‘menu of the day’ to compete with an established dining scene. On the north end of Banderas Bay, in Mexico’s Nayarit state, Rubra is rewriting the rules. Part of W Punta de Mita, the restaurant is helmed by Daniela Soto-Innes, who was named the World’s Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019. At just 28, she was the youngest chef to earn the accolade.

Rubra, Punta de Mita

Rubra’s architecture blends into its surroundings with ease. Mexican architect Ignacio Urquiza and interior designer Ana Paula de Alba shaped the restaurant as a sand-toned concrete monolith, inspired by the nearby Marietas Islands, with greenery seeping into every crevice. The main terrace frames a cinematic sweep of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the bay’s far horizon. ‘The repeated use of a single material creates a peaceful architecture that eliminates distractions, for a unique, simple and perfectly balanced gastronomic experience,’ explain Urquiza and de Alba.

Inside, an open kitchen, wine cellar and bar are positioned near a sliding glass façade that can seal the dining room without losing the airy, outdoor feel. Overhead, a pergola of wooden lattices – or enramadas – throws patterned light across the space, sheltering the native plants selected by landscapist Thalia Davidoff. Furniture was custom-made in collaboration with Rituales Contemporáneos, joined by stoneware from Chérie Ceramics, handblown glass by Nouvel Glas, and a green onyx sculpture by Carlos Mato.

Chef Soto-Innes calls her approach ‘tropical cooking,’ an ever-shifting palette based on what’s in season, much of it harvested from Rubra’s own garden. Maracuyá, Nunum basil, blossoms, and herbs find their way into four distinct menus: café-style breakfasts, a wine bar menu, and both à la carte and nine-course tasting dinners. Seafood leans into bright citrus and crisp greens: scallops from Los Mochis arrive in a cactus paddle with kombu and cedrón aguachile; a tuna tostada balances fennel, cucumber and red jalapeño beneath a crown of garden flowers.

As Soto-Innes puts it: ‘Rubra is a space where flavours speak, encounters transcend, and each moment finds its meaning.’

Rubra is located at Carr. Federal la Cruz de Huanacaxtle - Punta de Mita Km 8.5, Desarrollo Costa, 63734 Corral del Risco, Nay., Mexico.

Acapulco, where Kon-tigo, the most recent residential work of architect Manuel Cervantes is located, has captivated many throughout the decades, from starlets of the 1950s and 60s to jet-setting millionaires and contemporary globe-trotters. The beach resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, its high-rises backdropped by the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, not only hosts a vibrant nightlife scene but also offers a beautiful, rugged coastline, hidden ocean coves, and extreme cliff jumping, at sites such as La Quebrada cliff, which has a 40m drop.

However, the idyll was shattered in 2023, when Hurricane Otis – a category five storm –struck the Guerrero coast, becoming one of the most devastating tropical cyclones in the history of the Pacific. The aftermath was catastrophic, leaving around 250,000 families without access to shelter, drinking water, electricity, food, or medical care.

Discover the Kon-tigo housing project by architect Manuel Cervantes

Cervantes, founder his namesake studio, based in Mexico City, felt the need to act, and introduced Kon-tigo, a housing project that rethinks infrastructure to help rebuild communities.

Kon-tigo was designed to highlight and address Aculpulco’s inequalities, Cervantes says: ‘The natural disaster further exacerbated the existing conditions of vulnerability, particularly within low-income communities, deepening the already persistent issues of marginalisation and poverty.

‘In response to this context, the project sought to enhance quality of life for those affected while rethinking the built environment of vulnerable areas in order to regenerate the threads of community and restore dignity to the home – understood here as a vital and irreplaceable space in daily human life.’

The Kon-tigo model is built with simplicity in mind, and the architectural approach is adapted to the tropical climate of the region, defined by its warm weather, with average highs of 32°C, and coastal breeze. A construction system of prefabricated panels was used to create modules for different areas of the house.

Existing vegetation was also integrated into the spatial composition, with the project boasting bioclimatic efficiency through the implementation of layouts that incorporate passages that promote air circulation.

‘The house is conceived with an aesthetic of simplicity and tectonic purity, adopting a primitive and intuitive form that emphasises functionality,’ Cervantes tells Wallpaper*. ‘The large portico is governed as a protective element, providing shade and shelter to the living space, while the permeability of the structure allows simple and organic flows that adapt to the needs of each family.

‘Considering these principles and strategies, a system was designed which allows us to understand the needs, activities and problems of each family with the purpose of not losing the individuality of the user, and resulting in the design of each project.’

When Hurricane Otis hit, it laid bare the social fragility of underserved local communities, highlighting a deeper-rooted, ongoing struggle. The Kon-tigo project was a response to this, and the selection of families who became part of the initiative was guided by a series of interviews, the documentation of their experiences, and an understanding of their housing conditions after the disaster.

‘The design or allocation of each home was based on these stories, taking into account the family structure, number of members, and relational dynamics,’ Cervantes says. ‘Each house bears a unique identity and the capacity to evolve alongside its inhabitants.’

Mexican ranch El Ameyal is an ecological farm and retreat near Amealco, a historic town about two hours’ drive north of Mexico City, where guests can enjoy hilltop picnics, evening walks in the forest to see fireflies and sustainability workshops.

The surrounding natural landscape, encompassing a lake, ancient oak trees and fields dotted with dahlias during the rainy season, is the ranch’s star attraction – or perhaps was, now that a striking new vaulted brick building has joined the existing guest accommodation (which already included a safari tent, stylish caravan and contemporary adobe brick villa by Casa Patio).

Tour a Mexican ranch with an immersive brick vault pavilion

Completed in 2024, the 90 sq m guest pavilion is the work of Goma, an architecture practice with offices in both Santiago de Querétaro and Mexico City. Its team was struck by the site’s beautiful rolling hills, covered in trees, grasses and cacti, and was determined to let the natural elements take centre stage.

‘We envisioned the most appropriate project to be one that would minimally intervene in the site,’ they say. ‘A cabin that would blend into the landscape rather than introducing an architecture that would feel foreign or visually invasive to the surroundings. Thus, the architectural project also became a landscape project.’

Located in the lower part of the ranch, next to a seasonal stream, the resulting guest house is inspired by the idea of a cave and comprises a beautiful barrel vault with a large window framing the greenery on one side, and another framing a tranquil courtyard on the other. The structure is half-buried into the ground, hidden from view to preserve the landscape, and accessed via a staircase enclosed between two walls cut into the terrain.

A couple of chimney-like elements act as landmarks, indicating the cabin’s location from afar. ‘The chimneys function as windows to the sky, allowing sunlight to enter while avoiding potential obstacles. They subtly channel light into the interior, creating lantern-like effects during the day,’ explain the architects.

The project is called Casa de Barro, or ‘House of Clay’, as it is entirely built of red fired-clay bricks. ‘The reason why brick was chosen as the only material was to simplify the construction,’ explain the architects. ‘It is a locally available material, very easy to obtain, and does not require specialised labour. Moreover, it is a noble material that blends naturally into a modest rural context.’

Inside, the bricks are matched with wood and handcrafted tiles to create a warm atmosphere, while outside, they blend with the ground’s ochre tones. The barrel vault extends to create a sheltered terrace, which provides additional living space to the open-plan kitchen, lounge and bedroom.

Mexican architect Juan Benavides, who specialises in documentaries focusing on buildings, travelled to Casa de Barro and was struck by its idyllic setting. ‘The surroundings were quite special,’ he says. ‘Because the project is so small, it makes everything around it feel immense. It is beautifully and strategically placed on the site, and this allows you to admire the building from countless angles and heights, making its geometry and colour really stand out.’

The result of his visit was this short video, with a woodwind soundtrack that he says evokes ‘a kind of pastoral quality that pairs beautifully with the constant sounds of water running through the film.’

Walk through Casa de Barro: watch the film

‘When I approach a film, it’s purely an observational process on site—no planning, just discovery and improvisation. It’s essential for me to walk around –very impractically with my heavy camera, microphone, and tripod – and let myself be guided by what I see and what’s happening in that moment,’ he explains.

‘For this project, the arrangement of the building, with the landscape and the daily activities of the agroecological ranch was particularly picturesque and became a key element in shaping the narrative.’ The second piece of music featured in the film has multiple moments of complete silence, ‘to bring forward the ambient sounds’.

An artistic endeavour

Bill Prince, Editor-in-Chief

Last week Wallpaper* joined the artist Shezad Dawood for the unveiling of his latest work in the public realm, Cascade, two vertical 6m ceramic panels on the restored façade of the original Gaumont Palace on London’s King’s Road. It's been reimagined as The Gaumont, a new creative hub for Chelsea developed by Cadogan as a 220,000 sq ft mixed-use facility featuring a rooftop bar, a cinema, an office, and a residential and retail space that includes a bookshop and hi-fi bar. It's a location Dawood knows well, having been taken there as a child to see Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The artist constructed an artwork in fired terracotta that encapsulates the area’s history of creative endeavour, from early experiments in cinema, through to Led Zeppelin, Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood – a masterclass in memory and materials.

A Mexican escape

Anna Fixsen, US Editor

It may be peak vacation season here in the US, but it was blissfully quiet in Mérida, Mexico, from where I’ve just returned after a ten-day holiday. Unlike the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, home to traveller hotspots like Cancún and Tulum, Mérida isn’t plagued by over-tourism, meaning the city’s pastel-washed streets and points of interest are unhurried and uncrowded. In fact, we were among just a handful of guests at Hotel Cigno, an elegant and intimate boutique property located in Mérida’s historic heart. After a few days’ soaking up the city’s rich history (not to mention xtabentún, the local firewater), we ventured further afield, paying visits to the dazzling Uxmal, one of the Mayan world’s most important archaeological sites; taking dips in a cenote, the naturally occurring limestone sinkholes filled with azure fresh water; and ultimately, flopping on a white-sand beach at Casa K’u, a tranquil property an hour’s drive to the coast. Perfecto.