A Remote Holiday Home Celebrates Raw and Natural Materials in Mexico
An homage to Mexico’s untouched landscape, this elegant low-impact getaway sports a pared-back aesthetic.
A few years ago, two brothers on a rock climbing trip stumbled upon a beautiful and remote clearing near Aculco, Mexico—a serendipitous discovery that would later inspire the design of their minimalist holiday home.
The Aculco holiday home is "completely isolated in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nature," the architects say.
Rafael Gamo
The holiday home took two years to complete—from design conception to construction.
Rafael Gamo
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Charmed by the land’s untouched beauty and impressive nearby cliffs, the siblings purchased the 3.2-hectare property and tapped PPAA, a Mexico City–based architecture firm that shares the brothers’ reverence for nature, to design a low-maintenance getaway with minimal site impact.
Here, the two brothers are seen sitting on the large brick patio.
Rafael Gamo
The roof is angled to mimic the surrounding hills. It also solves "the practical issue of not having to clean the roofs," the architects add.
Rafael Gamo
"They were very clear about their intentions: It should be a small construction project with minimal damage to the natural surroundings; a place that enhances the beauty of nature with an outdoor terrace," the architects explain.
The exterior walls are built from large blocks of locally quarried stone.
Rafael Gamo
"So we sought to establish a reciprocal dialogue between the construction and its natural surrounding. We went for simplicity, minimal maintenance, and intimacy with the panorama and the land."
The house is located about 30 minutes from the town of Aculco (including a 10-minute drive down a dirt road), making it ideal for quick getaways.
Rafael Gamo
To mimic the surrounding hills, the 969-square-foot holiday home is topped with a simple sloped roof. An open-plan living space occupies the heart of the home and is flanked by a hearth on one side and a kitchenette on the other.
Natural light fills the house from four sides.
Rafael Gamo
West Elm chairs are paired with a locally crafted wooden table.
Rafael Gamo
The home includes two bedrooms, one for each brother. The ground-floor bedroom faces a wall of glass, while the other is perched above the bathroom in the loft space.
Clay tile floors and timber surfaces tie the building to the land. The locally quarried stone walls are left exposed in the interior.
Rafael Gamo
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Designed by Henrik Pedersen. Pedersen runs a Danish design studio focussed on lifestyle-based design, ranging from furniture and lighting to projects for clothing and food packaging companies. Henrik says “In our design solutions we adopt an international approach since our market place often spans the world. Our clients are both Danish and international enterprises and from many different lines of business. An important aspect of our work is keeping up with market trends, and therefore travelling, exploring and being inspired by the moment are essential to being able to see beyond tomorrow.” Photo courtesy of Gloster
Learn MoreSliding glazed doors open the ground-floor bedroom up to the outdoors. The timber bench was locally crafted.
Rafael Gamo
The loft bedroom is located beneath the highest point of the roof and overlooks the sitting area below.
Rafael Gamo
Yet the remote setting is a double-edged sword: the location lends itself to beautiful, uninterrupted views, but it also complicated the construction process.
When the home isn't inhabited, the brothers secure the building with heavy treated pine screens.
Rafael Gamo
"We had to deal with the fact that there was no specialized hand labor; that’s why we decided to work with local materials and the local ‘way of doing things’," the architects say, adding that the construction was very low budget. As a result, the design team sourced most of the materials locally and left them in their "raw" state—from the locally quarried "cantera" stone that makes up the exterior walls to the clay tile floors.
The kitchen cabinetry is built from Caribbean walnut.
Rafael Gamo
The wood-burning hearth fills the home with an orange glow at night.
Rafael Gamo
Completed in 2018, the Aculco holiday home currently serves as a private retreat. In time, however, the owners plan to open the home up to the public as a bookable rental on Cauma.
Walls of glass allow for uninterrupted views through the building.
Rafael Gamo
The holiday house at night.
Rafael Gamo
Aculco House floor plan
Aculco House upper floor plan
Related Reading: 10 Modern Vacation Homes in Mexico That Guarantee an Epic Escape
Project Credits:
Architect of Record: PPAA Perez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados / @perez_palacios_aa
Builder/General Contractor: Eulalio
Structural Engineer/Civil Engineer: BVG
Landscape Design Company: TANYA EGUILUZ/ GENFOR LANDSCAPE
Lighting Design/Interior Design: PPAA
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