Cadaval & Solà-Morales nestles Casa de la Roca into Mexican woodland

Architecture firm Cadaval & Solà-Morales has used fallen and dead trees found from around this house in Mexico to imprint its concrete exterior, which is painted black to disguise it amongst the forest.

The 300-square-metre Casa de la Roca is located in wooded mountains near to Valle de Bravo – a lakeside town to the west of Mexico City.

Comprising three volumes laid out to resemble a Y-shape, the residence is built primarily from concrete, which Cadaval & Solà-Morales chose because it has the best structural properties to bridge the slope of the site.

The firm gave extra texture to the material by imprinting it with the wood sourced from the remnants of trees in the surrounding area.

The walls are painted black on the outside to lessen the building's visual impact on the surroundings, and to protect the concrete so that it weathers well over time and requires little maintenance.

"It is [painted] black, responding to the desire to blend in with the landscape, seeking a certain anonymity in front of the vegetation and exuberant views," said Cadaval & Solà-Morales – who also painted the exterior of a concrete retreat in the Mexican countryside black – in a statement.

Upcycled wood also forms the roof structure, which is topped with shrubbery to further match the green landscape. Meanwhile, the ceiling beams are left exposed inside.

Cadaval & Solà-Morales designed the house with three arms to point towards different views. Large windows are placed at each end with the walls extending slightly to create covered outdoor decks.

An open-air covered lounge and dining area occupies the middle of the one-storey property, where the three arms meet. It leads straight from the front of the residence to a deck overlooking a lake at the rear. Here, residents can relax on extra chairs around tables, or in a hammock.

"The landscape surrounding the house is a unique place, where each and every one of its corners can be celebrated," said the firm.

"The project works with a double strategy: to build lookouts towards three specific points distant from each other, while building a central, nodal, protected but open to the outside, and that has a total exposure to different environments that the own architecture delimits."

Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1247311

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