House Between Two Rivers
You arrive from above, descending a ridge between two rivers. The ridge is cut by three walls, one receives you. The other two hide the program: one the living space, the kitchen, the chit chat and the idle day; the other, further down, the bedrooms, small courtyards, beyond the windows trees loom. Stair over stair, a crooked column, humid concrete, a garden.
The house is in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, set in an existing clearing on a ridge in the forest. The ridge descends to the west, with rivers to the South and North. The house is built into the slope, holding back the land with retaining walls of hammered concrete. The main living bar is perpendicular to the ridge, a five-meter retaining wall cuts the land, with only a hip height wall to suggest its presence from above. The living space opens to the West, with bifolding doors of Spanish cedar left open all day, simple curtains billow. The pool is further down the slope, unseen behind shrubbery. The kitchen hides underground.
The bedroom bar is two meters further down the southern slope, its retaining wall that much deeper. From above, the hip height remains the same. The rooms are oriented South and are separated from the slope by a corridor lit by small garden courtyards, open air terrariums.
The rooms are built of cinderblock with a thin concrete render; when it is humid the joints announce themselves.
The two bars are connected by a knuckle of trapezoidal stairs, their geometry permits the house’s disposition. One is above the other; one a cavern, the other open-air.
The large retaining walls serve as thermal masses. When the days of mountain sun turn into cold nights, the concrete keeps the house warm with no chimney or heating. The house receives its water from a nearby spring and is off the electrical grid, with solar panels and a battery.
