Life in earth

“You feel like you are right there. It’s the light that draws you in.” Hector Barroso is describing the work of French impressionist artist Claude Monet, who has cast a long shadow on him. The Mexican architect, who leads his namesake studio in Mexico City, could well be describing his own work, which draws heavily on art and literature for inspiration. “As you enter, the first room you come to is a living room,” he says of Casa Catarina, a newly finished residential project by his studio. “It’s quite dark, almost like a cave, but light from the garden encourages you to go out and have a dip in the pool.”

A weekend retreat set in Valle de Bravo, a rural enclave for the well-heeled just a few hours’ drive from Mexico City, Casa Catarina sits on a plot of land the size of two soccer pitches and comes with its own reservoir. Water, therefore, features prominently in the project: a swimming pool runs parallel to the house and a reflective pool sits perpendicular to the building.

Seen from above, the residence is arranged in a V-shape, pointing down a gentle slope towards the reservoir. One wing contains bedrooms for the client’s family, while the other – at the request of the client – is a self-contained guest wing that can easily be closed off when not in use.

These wings spread out elegantly, recalling the shoin-zukuri building complex at Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, which follows the same layout (lyrically dubbed “the flying geese formation” in Japan). And it’s this comparison, when monocle visits, that prompts Barroso to enthuse over another source of artistic inspiration: In Praise of Shadows by Japanese author Tanizaki Junichiro. “The book changed my life,” says Barroso. Published in 1933, Tanizaki critiques the rapid changes sweeping through the country at the time and laments the old Japan, which was in touch with, in his mind, a subtler and more refined aesthetic taste. Such an outlook is reflected in Barroso’s work, which is rooted in simplicity and a return to basics.

For proof of such an approach, one only has to look at the building’s layout: rooms are successively set back from one another, appearing as a series of interconnected cubes. These are pierced with light and greenery, with each communal space facing the garden, which is carefully arranged with endemic plants and shrubs.  To enhance natural light further, the architect has incorporated an enclosed garden next to each bedroom’s en suite. Numerous corners exposed by the house’s staggered plan are finished with floor-to-ceiling glazing, some perfectly framing views of the magnificent rocky cliff beyond the garden, known as El Peñon. This move ensures that both the gardens and landscape become parts of the architecture.

Simplicity is also embedded in Casa Catarina’s structural form. The building hugs the ground closely, only rising at the edge of one of the wings – where a sitting room has been added on top of the principal bedroom for the client to enjoy tranquil moments – and at the centre of the structure, where two double-height communal living rooms can be found. “[Having side-by-side living space] is very Mexican,” says Barroso, explaining that the living room closer to the garden acts as “an in-between space”, half-way indoors and half-way out. “It’s because we have a brilliant climate here, so people want to spend a lot of time outdoors.” Throughout the year the sunlight, reflected by the pool, bounces off the deep recesses framing the wall-to-wall windows, and is gently directed back into the communal rooms.
Enhancing this straightforward design ethos are the home’s sparsely decorated interiors. Walls are finished with cream-coloured stucco, while wood features prominently throughout – pine for the ceiling beams and oak for the doors, shutters, window frames, bespoke shelves, cabinets and flooring.  Barroso engaged Renzo, an 85-year-old Italian carpenter who normally lives in Oaxaca, for his precise woodwork. “In Mexico, there is no industrial standardisation, so we rely on craftsmen like Renzo to work flexibly,” says Barroso. “He is amazing. He would keep on tweaking the wood until suddenly – bang – the glass fits perfectly into the frame.” Despite the balmy climate, a stove has been inserted into the corner of the living room to fend off any winter chill. The Santo Tomás marble used for the kitchen worktop is the only feature that stands out. It is dark grey, with white veins like a flash of lightning in the night sky.

Barroso says that with this project, in addition to simplicity, he began to think more about sustainability too. The façade incorporates rammed earth, oak and stone sourced nearby, “mimicking” the landscape. The concrete, essential for structural support and used in the roof slab to shield the rammed earth from rain and erosion, has been locally pigmented to match the colour of the earthen walls.
But Barroso’s love affair with soil is not new. The architect has previously built an entire stadium with rammed earth in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. “The soil in Valle de Bravo is very different from Baja California Sur. The colour of soil here is richer due to the different climate,” says Barroso. “I employed a local construction company, Taller AF, to work on Casa Caterina, because of their knowledge of the soil. That was important.”

The resulting material, with its crisp, sharp edges, rivals the allure of exposed concrete and has a smaller carbon footprint. Rammed earth is labour-intensive but fire-resistant and seismically strong. Temporary frames must be set up, then soil is poured in and compacted until it is as hard as stone. After each layer dries, the process is repeated until the desired height is achieved, leaving lines on the façade that tell the story of this meticulous process. “The Great Wall of China was built with rammed earth,” says Barroso enthusiastically. “Once built, such structures are very strong. They last for ever. I want my buildings to be around for a long time and acquire patina.”

This might explain why Casa Catarina, despite being brand new, feels as though it has always been there. The knots in the pine and the roughness of the stone, incorporated into the façade, terrace and pools, all add to its timeless quality. Transplanted elsewhere, however, would the architect’s buildings retain the simplicity, material honesty and openness of Casa Catarina? “It’s about understanding the land first,” says Barroso.

Indeed, sketches produced by Barroso for this project reflect the essence of his thinking. They are made with pencil, sometimes with a hint of colour – yellow to indicate sunlight, green to indicate vegetation – and are simple in nature, appearing as a cluster of dark black lines. Appropriately, and perhaps as expected, they share visual similarities with drawings made by Claude Monet. In Casa Catarina, this source of artistic inspiration and an embrace of a simple, sustainable outlook has resulted in a house that feels both fresh and as though it has always been there – a rare feat in contemporary architecture. — L
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