Collection by Zach Edelson and Dwell
A Daring Hillside Home Made of Wood, Concrete, and Volcanic Stone
A family home in Mexico flips the script on traditional layouts. A family selected a difficult site—a steep hillside with 45° grade—for their new house in an affluent Mexico City suburb. While many nearby residents pay large sums to alter the landscape, the architecture firm Materia Arquitectónica had a radically different solution: place the main entrance atop the house and invert the ground floor-up progression of most homes. A unique stairwell would carefully shape how residents and visitors experience the house and surrounding landscape. Titled Casa U, the project also features a rich material palette of concrete, stone, and wood, all carefully considered to accentuate sunlight and the natural environment.