Casa Limoneros, conceived by Quaterna Arquitectos, is based on the vernacular architecture of Valle de Bravo, presenting a modern reinterpretation. The sloping roofs, clad in clay tiles, allude to regional construction tradition, while the selection of materials establishes a subtle dialogue with the surrounding natural environment.
For the execution of the roof structures, beams and planks of oyamel fir from the region were used, subjected to an artisanal charring process. This method not only protected the wood but also intentionally altered its natural appearance, giving it a range of deep grays, blacks, and mineral tones, which accentuates the contemporary character of the project.
The residence is structured into two distinct blocks: one dedicated to the private area and another to the social spaces. These volumes are connected by a covered passage that maintains their intentional separation, making the empty space itself a fundamental compositional component. Service areas were subtly integrated into this arrangement, ensuring clear organization throughout the project.
The entire functional program develops on a single floor, promoting a strong horizontal connection with the terrain. Despite maintaining a modest dimension, the wide internal proportions create a surprising sense of spaciousness. The sloping roofs reach their maximum expression without the need for double-height ceilings, resulting in interiors that are welcoming, intimate, and well-dimensioned.
A continuous band of tall windows demarcates the separation between the walls and the roof planes, giving the impression that the ceiling hovers over the volumes. Simultaneously, this feature introduces soft and uniform natural lighting throughout the house. This solution satisfies the residents' desire for naturally lit interiors, dispensing with skylights, while lending visual lightness to the roof.
A central principle of the project is the interaction between the interior and the exterior. Santo Tomás marble runs through both the internal floors and the terraces, punctuated only by gravel surfaces. This material continuity dissolves the boundary between the inside and the outside, allowing the landscape to become an organic extension of the living areas.
Built in an old lemon grove near a stream, the house demonstrates sensitivity to the local conditions. It was slightly elevated to respect the natural flow of water, and the mature trees were preserved and incorporated into domestic life. The use of residential space expands into the landscape through terraces, a pool, an outdoor fireplace, and various open-air spaces, transforming the land into a usable environment, and not just a passive backdrop.
The connections between these different areas are established by tracks made of wooden sleepers recovered during the construction, reinforcing the broader strategy of material reuse and bringing the architecture closer to its surroundings. Light metal elements were applied to the secondary roofs and components of the external pavilion, aiming to optimize time and costs on a difficult access lot. Additionally, a custom carbon steel fireplace complements the sober material palette of the residence.
Instead of competing with the surrounding scenery, Casa Limoneros establishes a silent dialogue with it. The project reflects the architectural identity of Valle de Bravo through a contemporary language that prioritizes the connection between landscape, materiality, and habitable space.
Casa Refúgio, located in the suburbs of Santiago de Querétaro, was conceived as a residence that values family life, flexibility, and intimacy, especially in an increasingly dense urban setting.
Externally, the building presents itself as a contained and almost hermetic block, designed to protect the interior and create an atmosphere of serenity upon approach. Access to the house is gradual, slowly revealing the social area—composed of the living room, dining room, and kitchen—where an extensive backyard serves as a visual boundary, allowing vegetation to envelop the walls.
In this space, the visual focus is contained and intimate, and curtains help soften the area, keeping it present but without total exposure. The staircase, inserted into a cradle vault, functions as the central axis of the house, connecting the different floors, filtering light, and following the daily rhythm of the residents.
On the ground floor, the family office is integrated with an internal garden featuring a double-height ceiling. A large window permeates this space, establishing a constant link between the space, the vegetation, and the variable light throughout the year. In the late afternoon, stained glass windows on the roof project colors onto the walls of the internal patio, creating a place conducive to contemplation. Parallelly, the bedrooms on this level extend into gardens, promoting a natural and personal environment.
The second floor houses the master suite, organized around a voluminous exposed concrete curved element. This component subtly conceals the bathroom area, avoiding the rigidity of orthogonal or completely closed divisions, defining the space and facilitating the transition between bedroom and bathroom.
A circular skylight above the bathtub directly illuminates the space, transforming the bathing moment into a tranquil pause. In contrast, a workspace opens up to the double-height ceiling of the downstairs living room, maintaining visual and auditory communication. The project avoids isolating the floors, seeking to maintain proximity among inhabitants and allow life to flow between different levels without the need for constant movement.
On the terrace, the function of the house changes; the elements that introduce light—such as domes, skylights, and curved forms—appear as independent structures. Initially conceived as a meditation space, this level has been adapted for leisure, where architecture transcends the function of mere container and becomes a backdrop.
In summary, Casa Refúgio establishes a way of living sensitive to temporal changes, being a dwelling that adapts and accompanies life according to the season or time of day. This sensitivity is reflected in the interaction with the landscape, present in all rooms through controlled patios and gardens, ensuring that nature is close. The project aims to prevent the floors from becoming isolated units, configuring them as interconnected spaces through visuals, sounds, and daily presence, keeping domestic life active between the environments.
In a recently published slim volume with yellow margins, released by the Portuguese publisher Circo de Ideias, architect Paulo Martins Barata (co-founder of Promontório) puts forward a bold assertion hidden behind apparent simplicity: architecture created in Europe after the Great Recession does not belong to either of the two domains that shaped heated discussions in the discipline during the 20th century.
The book The Language of Metamodern Architecture borrows its name with obvious irony from Charles Jencks' book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977). It was in this book that Jencks famously proclaimed the death of modern architecture at 3:32 PM on July 15, 1972, which was linked to the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe.
Barata believes that another, never officially confirmed death occurred around 2008, and that architecture largely lives, without realizing it, around this 'headstone.'
The SONO House / Atelier Carle project is a residential building that organically unites a single composition oriented towards northern light. The design frames the landscapes opening onto the extensive site landscape.
Three long concrete walls of varying heights approach the building, corresponding to the scale of the surrounding landscape. These walls emphasize the permanence of the architectural landscape and anchor the building in time. The entrance to the structure is hidden in a narrow opening between different volumes.
Upon crossing this threshold, the spaces are organized such that social and private areas are arranged according to a flexible plan and wooden structure. This demonstrates the building's ability to adapt over a longer time horizon.
