In the outdoor dining room, wire chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll surround a mango wood table made by a local carpenter, Diego Madrazo.
"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.
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.
The master bedroom is shaded by exterior slats in cumaru, a sustainable tropical wood. Alazraki designed the custom bed frame.
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.
About 100 miles southwest of Mexico City, nine black concrete blocks in a forest clearing make up one family's holiday home. Designed by Fernanda Canales with landscaping by Claudia Rodríguez, Casa Bruma makes elegant use of a construction material that's commonplace in Latin America
Desert Midcentury Modern Landscape
Living green walls may have gotten their start 80 years ago, but they’ve recently become some of the most striking and important eco-friendly features in buildings across the world.
An IKEA desk and SKI wooden provide working accommodations in the study, overlooking the main living space.
A piece by John Belingheri hangs in the living room of the Bancroft family’s home, which is centered by an Antonio Citterio sofa and Robert Marinelli tables.
Overlooking the Hudson River, Allan Shope’s nearly 3,000-square-foot sustainable home features handmade furniture and an undulating floor, all crafted from the site’s felled black walnut trees.
A band of precast concrete, which holds a custom bench, wraps around the downstairs living area. The striped cushion fabric was purchased in Antwerp. A wood-framed AP71 lounge chair by Hans Wegner and a seat by Wim Rietveld, the son of famed Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld, outfit the space. Underfloor heating installed throughout the house allows for a flexible layout: “There aren’t any radiators cluttering up the rooms,” Jeffries explains.
Exterior
