Casa Mexico

The couple wanted stacked ceramic tile to be a repeated feature of their home, alongside white oak and oversized knobs.

The primary suite's half wall allows for sunlight and fresh air to reach the full bathroom on the other side.

The panels were fabricated using sand quarried from the site, which was mixed with a small amount of cement and dried in layers, each showing a slightly different hue.

The dining and living space are a few steps down from the rest of the house, creating a wider volume for these public areas.

The homeowners’ sleeping area opens wide to the outdoors and a wood-burning stove supplements the geothermal and solar-powered systems.

The living room’s wood-burning fireplace has a concrete hearth that wraps the chimney and runs under the windows, acting as seating, a plant ledge, and creating a spot to store logs, all of which are harvested from the site.

The kitchen’s concrete countertops complement the handcrafted cabinetry.

In addition to having a double vanity with sinks upscaled from coffee mortars, the lower-level bathroom also offers quartzite counters, stone flooring, and an oversized soaking tub.

The rooftop pool's glass flooring invites an abundance of natural light into the double-height living area.

Architect Ignacio Urquiza explains that in Valle de Bravo, everyone has two living rooms, an interior and exterior. “You spend the whole year in the exterior because of the weather, even if it’s raining. All the interior spaces become abandoned. We wanted to erase the interior one. With the design of the windows, it would turn into the exterior façade. That was an important part of the project.”

Ernesto designed the villa’s kitchen more “for every day,” he says, but the one added to the courtyard has a professional range and parrilla to accommodate groups. “I don’t need super-fancy equipment,” Ernesto says. He and Yektajo designed the bar stools.

The tower has a sunken ground-floor suite, which allows for a higher ceiling and helps it stay cool, as does the window facing the pool. “The wind passes over it and brings in fresh air,” Yektajo says. “This is how pools are built in the Middle East.”

The tower was limited to nine meters in height (because it’s sunken, it rises to about eight and a half), but the construction style emphasizes its stature. “We did the board-forming top to bottom to give it a sense of verticality,” Yektajo says. “It makes the tower seem way taller.” The concrete’s rough texture and brown pigment complement the adjacent brick building, now a lounge.