The idea behind Endémico is "luxury camping." Set on 40 acres of gorgeous, unspoiled terrain, there are 20 bungalows and a shared pool for guests to take a dip in. The Encuentro Guadalupe winery offers guests access to local wines as well as a peek at how they are processed through winemaking courses. Encuentro's restaurant will feature dishes that incorporate local flavors as well as a cooking school where people can learn how to prepare creative meals with the guidance of talented young chefs.

To most eyes, Ezequiel Farca’s 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City looked like a teardown. Even the lot itself—shallow and crammed against a steep hillside—wasn’t particularly alluring. But Farca saw through all the restraints to create a spa-like refuge in one of the world’s most energetic cities. "It’s is such a hectic place. You’re bombarded by so much information the moment you step into the streets," says Farca, who first gained prominence as a furniture and interior designer. "So we envisioned this house as a retreat, a kind of a temple." The rooftop courtyard is lined with a verdant mix of indigenous plants, including banana trees, palm trees, lion’s claw, Mexican breadfruit, and native vines. The chaise longues were designed for Farca’s EF Collection.

In the outdoor dining room, wire chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll surround a mango wood table made by a local carpenter, Diego Madrazo.

Known for furniture and interior design, Ezequiel Farca transformed a 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City into a tranquil sanctuary. The temple-like retreat blends into the hilly Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood with its pale gray-green hue and strategic plantings, which soften the boundaries between house, garden, and street. The Recinto lava stone patio accessed through the living room holds teak outdoor furniture designed by Farca himself.

"The longer I work as an architect, the more I want to deepen my skills as a gardener," says Yuri Zagorin Alazraki, founder of the Mexico City firm ZD+A. In building his own house in Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, his commitment has produced results that appear miraculous. In fact, they grow out of a carefully choreographed series of bravura design moves.

An Almond bathtub by Porcelanosa is accented by a tub filler from Hansgrohe.

Two art studios adjoin a central volume at this work/live residence built from terracreto (sustainable concrete), glass, and painted steel just outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Residents Austin and Lida Lowrey, retired design and museum professionals, collaborated with their two daughters—Sheridan, an artist, and Elizabeth, an architect—to design the structure as a place for creative contemplation.

A collection of flea-market finds and personal keepsakes sit perched upon a shelf in Austin’s studio.

In an effort to create an abundance of light and air flow throughout the space, the home follows an L-shaped floor plan that wraps around outdoor areas. “We designed several open spaces, each with a different feel: the garden and pool, the terrace, and the back patio,” says Cesarman. “The idea was to reduce the area to the most basic and essential [elements].”

“It’s never static or solid here—with thelight, there’s always some sort of movement.”—Austin Lowrey, resident

Solid European oak flooring by DuChateau runs throughout the home. The sculpture is by Jorge Yázpik.

Mexican encaustic tiles with a geometric floral pattern from Mosaicos Terra line the bathroom in Austin’s studio, where a full-height window near the wall-mounted shower provides a view to the expansive outdoor scenery. A vintage kewpie doll sculpture sits atop the custom terrazzo-and-granite counter; the steel mirror is from Artes de México.

Farca furnished the living room with a Serge Mouille three-arm floor lamp, custom sofas from EF Collection, and Surface tables by Vincent Van Duysen for B&B Italia.

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

A couple—he an entrepreneur working in logistics, she a stay-at-home mother—bought an 8,500-square-foot house here and approached JSa, a Mexico City-based architectural firm, with the idea of remodeling it. The house was poorly sited on its lot in a manner that drew very little natural light. The architects sized it up and quickly realized that the best solution would be to tear it down and start from scratch.

Oak veneer lines the stairwell in between the master bedroom and the children’s wing.

The master bedroom, painted in Whisper by Comex, sports a bed that Farca custom-designed as part of his EF Collection.

Crushed stone paths and native plantings, including cacti, wildflowers, and grasses, encompass the surrounding landscape. “We’re nothing but natural,” says Austin. “The cacti, to me, are like pieces of sculpture, each with their own personality. I even named some.”

In the sitting area, two leather Paulistano chairs by Paulo Mendes da Rocha top a rug by Yerra; the wall paint is Comex.

Farca also designed the custom millwork throughout the house, such as the swinging door leading into the dining room. The leather Siren dining chairs are by Holly Hunt.

Narigua House (El Jonuco, Mexico) Architect: David Pedroza Castañeda Category: House

Photo courtesy of JSa.

Mexico City, population 22,200,000. Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere.

Estadio Azteca (Mexico City, Mexico: 1970 and 1986 World Cups) It’s easy for this classic stadium to be overshadowed by the incredible football that’s taken place on its pitch, from the “Hand of God” goal and 1970’s “Game of the Century” between Italy and West Germany to a pair of electrifying World Cup finals. Architects Pedro Ramirez Vasquez and Rafael Mijares studied stadiums overseas for years, eventually creating an iconic venue that, with it’s sound trapping overhangs and incredible altitude, has functioned like a 12th man supporting the Mexican national squad, which has rarely lost here.

The house features several courtyards, conveying an ever-present sense of indoor-outdoor living. Concrete walls are lined with yellow jasmine, and the wall sculpture is taken from Manuel Felguérez’s fence for the National Anthropology Museum.

Handcrafted green cement tile floors are used in the kitchen and in many living spaces in the home. Honed granite counters, Tzalam wood cabinets, and GE Profile appliances complete the airy space.

The striking master bath is lined from floor to walls in silvery gray marble.

A vintage Lightolier pendant and sleek Arclinea cabinets by Antonio Citterio stand out against a wall paneled in reclaimed pine in the kitchen. Seating is a mix of Bertoia wire chairs and armchairs by the Mexican designer Hector Esrawe.

Glass-and-steel corridors link each of Austin and Lida’s studios to the main pavilion, where they share the kitchen and a central living and dining space.

A window in another bedroom overlooks protected woodland.

Welded-sheet steel partitions both carve out a sleeping area and mirror the exterior palette, blurring boundaries between inside and outside. Inspired by the hue of artist Richard Serra’s Cor-Ten sculptures, the Lowreys had all of the steel primed and painted with a hand-mixed blend of matte paint from Sherwin-Williams.

"A lot of people were skeptical about the idea, even though it wasn't the first time I pulled off something crazy," Cadena says. "I just trusted my intuition and the philosophy of the chef."

In the dining room, antique wooden busts and a machiche cross designed by Farca are arranged on a resin countertop by Monica Calderon. The bar conceals a service area with an espresso machine.

Lucha Libre "The lucha libre (professional wrestling) at the Arena Mexico is an event not to be missed on a visit to Mexico City if you happen to be here on a Friday night. A mix between a sporting event and a circus performance, it’s the ideal place to get all your work week’s stress out by yelling at the rudos (bad guys) or the tecnicos (good guys), and be amused by the interaction of the crowd with every member in the ring."

To the south, a small soaking pool sits outside Austin’s studio, where he’ll often lie and meditate: “I’m a great floater, and can look at the clouds for an hour everyday,” he says. The adjacent wall was coated with smooth sand plaster finish to accommodate video and film projections by night.

Outside, a gridded trellis with sheet-punched panels overlays the structure and extends into the landscape, providing shade in the warm desert climate.