Within the evergreen woodlands of Mexico’s Valle de Bravo, seasons arrive subtly and discreetly. ‘Autumn right here isn’t orange, and winter isn’t white,’ says architect Bernardo Chavez Peón. However whereas native pine and ash timber stand perennially verdant, the panorama’s mild variations are discernible. ‘On the bottom, the place shrubs and flowers develop, you may see radical adjustments all year long,’ he says. There, nestled between hills on a barren strip of land as soon as used for agriculture, now stands a house designed by Chavez Peón as a weekend retreat for a household of 5. This, an idyllic Mexican bolthole, is the primary residential challenge by the architect, who established his Mexico Metropolis-based follow in 2019.
Incorporating the shifts of the pure environment into the structure was Chavez Peón’s principal intention. He recollects his shoppers saying, throughout preliminary visits to the positioning, that they might be pleased with little greater than a tent there. ‘The concept was for them to go not just for the home, however for the positioning itself,’ he says, including that within the widespread areas, he needed to erase the boundary between inside and exterior.
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
Stepping inside this Mexican bolthole
One explicit view grew to become the challenge’s focus: within the distance, fog settles between two overlapping hills, making a dynamic play of sunshine and shadows. An expansive front room, described by the architect as the center of the house, is oriented in the direction of this spectacle. ‘As an alternative of watching TV, you may observe the adjustments within the ambiance – the solar, the rainfall, how the mist strikes round and dissipates,’ he says. Different inside areas both body slivers of the views or open to them absolutely, inviting the temperate local weather in.
Finishing the sense of a complete immersion in nature, Chavez Peón employed regionally sourced supplies, together with stone and dark-tinted pine, all through the construction; loos characteristic particulars in Santo Tomás marble, whereas wooden and Mexican volcanic rock make up the flooring. ‘Nature itself gave us the palette,’ says Chavez Peón. ‘And we didn’t need to compete with it through the use of international supplies.’ Seen from afar, there’s a pleasant stress to the challenge – it seems refi ned and up to date, but in addition as if born of the earth or within the technique of being engulfed by it. The variegated stone and wooden of the façade stand already as testaments of the passage of time and, although it was solely accomplished in 2021, one can already think about the constructing ageing with grace and confidence.
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
Richly textured areas mimic the exuberance of the surroundings – lavish textiles in muted hues abound, with accent items of woven palm or terracotta. Gentle bounces off heat white furnishings, however principally, it’s absorbed by the structure’s darker surfaces, creating an easeful ambiance that embraces guests and invitations them to unwind. Above all, Chavez Peón explains, this was a home conceived as a spot the place the household’s associates and kin can escape the calls for of metropolis life and are available collectively. The shoppers’ penchant for internet hosting led them so as to add a sixth bed room to the challenge in the course of the late phases of the design work, in order to accommodate further friends. Bedrooms and different non-public areas are characterised by a noble austerity, the place minimal furnishings is balanced by a generosity of sunshine and texture.
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
Two full kitchens, one inside and one other on a terrace, are related via a vegetable backyard. Equally, the eating space is break up in two. ‘We didn’t need to have one huge eating room as a result of, when it’s simply the household, it’s good to sit down down at a smaller desk,’ says Chavez Peón. And when the household do host bigger gatherings, the floor-to-ceiling home windows that separate each areas will be opened, ‘and so, though half the group is inside and the opposite exterior, there’s one shared atmosphere’.
Maybe the house’s most hanging characteristic is its swimming pool, positioned on the foot of the overlapping hills that enchanted each architect and shoppers. Echoing the symmetry of the dwelling space that overlooks it, the straightforward black rectangle, which additionally homes a jacuzzi, takes on a sculptural function when not in use. Like a chunk of land artwork, the darkish stillness of the water refl ects an everchanging sky above. ‘You possibly can see the pool from each fundamental space of the home, and it’s lovely to have the ability to watch the clouds transfer on its floor,’ says Chavez Peón. ‘And when you’re in it, at floor degree, you’re feeling such as you’ve grow to be part of the earth.’
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
(Picture credit score: Fabián Martínez)
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A model of this story seems in January 2023 Wallpaper*, The Future Subject, accessible now in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple Information +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* right now (opens in new tab)
Supply: Wallpaper
