自建别墅丨墨西哥丨Escobedo Soliz Studio

Architects:Escobedo Soliz Studio

Area:100m²

Year:2025

Photographs:Ariadna Polo Fotografía

Manufacturers:Origen Madera

Lead Architects:Pavel Escobedo y Andrés Soliz

Category:Residential Architecture,Houses

Design Team:Diana Rico, Alberto Calderón, Gabriel Angélico, Alexa Resendíz

General Contractor:Alma Hernández Covarrubias

Interior Design:Christel Blomqvist

Engineering & Consulting > Structural:Adalberto estrada

Engineering & Consulting > Services:Sergio Ayala

City:San Pedro de los Pozos

Country:Mexico

Text description provided by the architects. This project comprises a residence for a retired Finnish woman, situated in a former mining settlement within the Sierra Gorda of Guanajuato. Conceived as a discreet and contemplative refuge, the house occupies an irregularly shaped plot, densely populated with pirul trees, organ cacti, mesquite, prickly pears, and marked by the presence of an 18th-century mining shaft.

The site, narrow and uneven, is defined on the eastern edge by a preexisting adobe and stone wall, and on the west by a natural barrier of organ cacti. The program, articulated by the client, Mrs. Christel, required a principal dwelling on a single level and, above it, a two-bedroom apartment with independent access for rental purposes.

The architectural strategy incorporated the adobe wall as the guiding axis for access to the principal residence, entered through a courtyard that is simultaneously contained by both the wall and the house. This courtyard functions as an organizing element, linking all domestic spaces through a semi-open portico. On the upper level, the apartment is structured around its own central patio. To the west, the dwelling is articulated into three staggered volumes, a gesture that negotiates the irregular trace of the cactus boundary while avoiding the remains of the mining shaft. Importantly, the project was conceived to allow construction in distinct phases, ensuring adaptability over time.

The decision to employ locally produced red fired brick responded to a desire to work with a traditional material whose thermal and economic properties supported the use of a double-wall system known as enhuacalado. This constructive technique enabled the formation of robust, hollow walls capable of accommodating both structure and services, while also facilitating phased construction with greater efficiency. Carefully framed square apertures establish precise visual connections to the garden, while in the central patio, tall masonry surfaces modulate light, intensify silence, and cultivate an atmosphere of seclusion—an ambience particularly suited to reading and contemplation.

From the outset, the project aspired to qualities of simplicity, intimacy, and material authenticity—values that resonate across both Mexican and Nordic architectural traditions. Its pursuit was oriented toward the essential and the poetic dimensions of dwelling, deliberately eschewing the superficial or ostentatious.

The realization of the project's first phase extended over four years and was made possible only through the collaborative energy and commitment of the client, the local architect, and the Escobedo Soliz team.

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