Rammed Earth and Cactus Gel Make a Haven for a Family Outside Mexico City

When architectural photographer Camila Cossio and her husband, architect Luis Carbonell, ended up in Valle de Bravo during the pandemic in 2020, they didn’t know the idyllic region surrounding the town—a lakefront retreat two and a half hours west of Mexico City—would become their year-round home. At the time the couple, who were living in the capital and had both done graduate work in New York, were consummate city dwellers. "We loved socializing with friends and were always out and about," says Camila. Their apartment in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood suited their lifestyle. But the arrival of their first child, Juliana, in July 2019, drastically changed things. "Becoming a parent was hard for me. It meant getting away from my friends and the life I knew," recalls Luis, whose jovial manner makes it easy to imagine him in a hip Condesa bar.