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When a hurricane slammed into Cancún, Mexico, last year, José Sacre’s solar-powered, stone-and-concrete home kept glowing long after the sun set and the power went out. “You would not imagine this big rock in the middle of the compound glowing with light, when everyone had no electricity,” says José. “It was like the rock stood against nature—it’s so natural that it keeps living.”

The rocks weren’t necessarily part of the plan back in 2020 when José (cofounder of architecture firm El Umbral) and his wife started considering a move to Cancún after learning that they were expecting twins. The couple already had a toddler, so their Mexico City home was about to be bursting at the seams.

A friend called José to tell him that massive, fossil-filled rocks were being excavated amidst a major construction project near the Cancún airport. Curious, José grabbed another pal, Alessandro Arienzo, coprincipal of Mexico City–based Lanza Atelier, and they went to take a look. “Alessandro and I came to Cancún, and we went to see the big rocks they were taking out, all petrified with seashells and fossils, and we decided to build the house with those rocks,” José recalls. “Even though we didn’t have a project yet, we knew we wanted to use them.”

Cancún’s famously stormy weather informed many of the project’s material choices. “Cancún is a place where you have two or three hurricanes a year,” José explains. “We decided we didn’t want to use much wood, or anything else that would be complicated when the house gets hit with water.” Collaborating with Arienzo and his coprincipal Isabel Martínez Abascal, José began plans for a four-story, 8,000-square-foot, “hurricane-proof” fortress of a home built from thousands of the excavated rocks.

The home’s unconventional layout reflects the family’s lifestyle. At first glance, the top floor appears to be a massive walk-in closet with ocean views, where clothes hang in a central mirrored box: it’s designation as a bedroom is almost secondary. “We took off the importance of the bedroom for sleeping and created this space that’s like a big closet with an ocean view,” José explains. “It became a place to hold our archive of clothes with a bed, so we’d be sleeping inside like a store.”

The communal gathering spaces—a living/dining room accented with a high ceiling, a custom yakisugi table and a Paul Fägerskiöld painting, and a kitchen decked out with colorful clay tiles and shining stainless steel—cover the levels between the primary suite and the ground floor, where the little ones sleep and play. The house is certainly built for lots of the latter, and José’s four-year-old son has already claimed the rock walls in unexpected ways. “He calls it ‘my rock house’ and puts his small Pokémon inside the caves that the rocks make in his room,” José notes. “Each Pokémon has a little space where he lives in the wall.”

At first, not everyone appreciated the experimental architecture. During permitting, condo committee members called it “the pimple house” because of its distinctive form.

“We were having these big problems with them,” José admits. “But then they started falling in love with the house because it became a real conversation piece.” An older neighbor eventually delivered what José considers the ultimate compliment: “You have the most beautiful house in Cancún, because you give people something to talk about.”

Related Reading:

In Cancún, Two Architects Are Using Rental Apartments to Try to Reinvigorate a Neighborhood

In Baja Sur, a Chef Turns a Historic Property Into a Compound for His Creative Community

This Beach House in Mexico Frames the Landscape With an Orderly Concrete Grid

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Lanza Atelier / @lanzaatelier in collaboration with El Umbral / @elumbral

Landscape Design: Lanza Atelier in collaboration with El Umbral

Lighting Design, Interior Design & Cabinetry Installation: Lanza Atelier in collaboration with El Umbral

Appears In

This “Sea Snail” Home Is Built From Thousands of Tiny Fossils