When designing Casa Graciela, a weekender in the popular vacation area of Santiago Tepetlapa, Mexican architects Jorge Ambrosi and Gabriela Etchegaray had a number of environmentally-focused goals. The Ambrosi Etchegaray founders wanted to establish an uninterrupted relationship between built environment and place, and to optimise the found terrain, as well as the outdoor lifestyle, which can be enjoyed all year round in this consistently mild area.
To achieve this they broke up structural elements, such as terraces, stonewalls and concrete slabs, submerged outdoor platforms in the landscape, and allowed nature to weave in and out of the various architectural spaces. A large terrace was also constructed at the property's highest, rear, point to best appreciate views.
Take an interactive tour of GP House
Structures were built by local people from stone, adobe block, timber, marble and concrete, which were all sourced in the region. These raw, simple materials were chosen to emulate the materiality of the local architecture, and for the fact that they will increasingly blend into their setting with age.
As so often happens in life, the biggest project challenge came from the thing that initially attracted. This remote and ruggedly beautiful setting lacked full utility infrastructure - in particular, the site had no available potable water or close power main. In the end, Ambrosi and Etchegaray found solutions to these challenges, which were not only practical, but greatly enhanced Casa Graciela's aesthetic and atmosphere.
In addition to installing cisterns for potable water collection, rainwater needed to be gathered for passive irrigation of planned landscaping. The latter challenge ultimately inspired a sequence of striking, water elements, including a gravity-fed water channel, which falls from the property's highest point - through contemplative ponds and a lap pool - to the cultivated gardens on the property's lower levels. These serve to reduce the local high and dry temperatures while creating a cool and contemplative environment, which is enhanced by the omnipresent sound of moving water.
Casa Graciela's open pavillion faces a horizon of jagged mountains and its dispersed structures and ponds hug the undulating terrain to finally create a home with beautifully blurred lines between inside and out.
The Ambrosi Etchegaray team had a number of environmentally-focused goals in mind, when designing this project
They wanted their structure to be as respectful to the surrounding mexican nature as possible, weaving it into the landscape
To achieve this they broke up the overall volume and embedded the house in its surroundings, allowing nature to enter the house
The house was built by local people from stone, adobe block, timber, marble and concrete
These raw, simple materials were chosen to emulate the materiality of the local architecture, while blending into the scenery
The complex features a strong water element. The architects installed cisterns for potable water collection...
...while rainwater needed to be gathered for passive irrigation of planned landscaping
The water also serves to reduce the local high and dry temperatures
Indoors and outdoors areas blend as one in various parts of the house...
...while a large terrace was constructed at the property's highest, rear, point to best appreciate views
INFORMATION
For more information on the architects visit the Ambrosi Etchegaray website
Photography: Rafael Gamo
-
Oliver Spencer’s orbiting installation offers a meditative shopping experience during London Design FestivalAt Oliver Spencer’s Shoreditch store, a sensory light installation by Studio Rhythmics offers a calming moment during LDF
-
These benches are made from £2.5m worth of shredded banknotesYou could be sitting on a fortune this London Design Festival, as the Bank of England Museum explores the creative repurposing of waste with furniture made from decommissioned banknotes
-
Rachel Whiteread creates silver collection for Puiforcat inspired by corrugated cardboardThe Turner Prize-winning artist reinterprets imperfection in a new silverware collection with French maison Puiforcat
-
A Mexican clifftop retreat offers both drama, and a sense of placeCasa Piscina del cielo, a clifftop retreat by Zozaya Arquitectos, creates the perfect blend of drama and cosiness on Mexico's Pacific Coast
-
Broken up into six pavilions, this brutalist Mexican house is embedded in the landscapeSordo Madaleno’s brutalist Mexican house, Rancho del Bosque, is divided up into a series of pavilions to preserve the character of its hillside site, combining concrete, curves and far-reaching views
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthWallpaper* has spotlighted an array of remarkable architecture in the past month – from a pink desert home to structures that appears to float above the ground. These are the houses and buildings that most captured our attention in August 2025
-
Estudio Ome on how the goal of its landscapes ‘is to provoke, even through a subtle detail, an experience’The Mexico City-based practice explores landscape architecture in Mexico, France and beyond, seeking to unite ‘art and ecology’
-
Pretty in cactus-inspired pink, this Mexican desert house responds to its arid contextCasa Cardona, a pink house by architects Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana, is a multigenerational home that celebrates colour and changing light
-
As climate disasters increase, can architecture respond? Kon-tigo, a post-hurricane Acapulco house design, shows us howKon-tigo is a housing project by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, which creates bioclimatic homes that address climate disasters and inequalities in Acapulco, Mexico
-
An eco-friendly Mexican ranch offers sleep under a beautifully crafted brick vaultArchitects Goma have built a Mexican ranch with a stunning red-brick guest pavilion; Rancho El Ameyal is a lush eco-retreat in the central Mexican state of Querétaro
-
In Quintana Roo, a park mesmerises with its geometric pavilionA Mexican events venue in the state of Quintana Roo rings the changes with a year-round pavilion that fosters a strong connection between its users and nature
