Casa B | RootStudio

In Casa B, RootStudio transforms a complex topographical condition into an architecture of movement and discovery. Conceived as a family compound comprising three white concrete residences, two courtyards and a lower communal level with a more intimate atmosphere and darker material palette, the project creates a deliberate counterpoint to the brightness of the upper volumes. With nearly 700 square meters of built floor area—and a total development approaching 1,100 square meters—the project was completed in 2025 after a five-year design and construction process. The house stems from an uncommon degree of freedom: to create a place where family life could unfold between private and shared spaces, while remaining flexible enough to accommodate different ways of living without sacrificing privacy.  The layout unfolds as a welcoming labyrinth, where each residence retains its autonomy while also becoming part of a collective reading of the whole. The house connects two streets positioned at different elevations—approximately five meters apart—and transforms this vertical difference into the guiding principle of the project. From this condition emerge the courtyards, level changes, visual relationships and multiple ways of accessing each residence. Depending on the point of entry, the route may cross water, descend a spiral staircase, continue along a concrete passageway, or emerge into an internal courtyard. Circulation is organized through variation, with every movement offering a different relationship with the architecture and the surrounding landscape.

From the outside, Casa B appears as a sequence of restrained volumes that protect domestic life while carefully regulating their relationship with the street. As visitors move through its thresholds, the project gradually opens onto courtyards, reflecting pools, vegetation and expansive views across the San Felipe Nature Reserve, the city of Oaxaca and the valleys stretching towards Tlacolula. This dual character—as both refuge and lookout—defines much of the project’s identity: the architecture turns inward to preserve privacy, while constantly orienting itself towards the landscape. Every bedroom, terrace and shared space is designed around a visual destination—a mountain at sunrise, a strip of sky or the shadow cast across a wall—ensuring that the scale of the valley remains ever present.

White concrete serves both as the project’s primary material and as its architectural language. RootStudio selected it for its plasticity and its ability to shape planes, voids, staircases and walls with a continuity that allows the entire composition to be read as a single, coherent piece. On the façades, the grid of formwork joints establishes scale; within the courtyards, perforated walls filter daylight and cast ever-changing shadows across the water. On the terraces, the white volumes receive the intensity of the Oaxacan sun against the constantly shifting outline of the surrounding mountains. Their presence defines an exterior of remarkable material strength and restraint, protecting an interior that feels warmer while gracefully accompanying the passing of time.

The dialogue between exterior and interior is one of the project’s most expressive gestures. Beyond the mineral presence of concrete, the house incorporates timber, stone, leather and bespoke pieces created by RootStudio in collaboration with local craftspeople. The spiral staircase introduces a sculptural presence, while the circular dining table, graphics-backed chairs, low furniture, joinery, metalwork and lighting all respond to a shared design logic: nothing exists as isolated ornament; every element contributes to daily life. Dark stone surfaces with light veining add depth, while warm light falls across softly textured walls, leather sofas, natural timber and reddish-hued window frames that incorporate the landscape into everyday life.

Water plays a central role within this spatial organization. In the main courtyard, the swimming pool also functions as a reflecting pool: a shallow sheet of water mirrors the architecture, the staircase, the sky and the perforated wall, interrupted only by a deeper central section designed for swimming. The circulation route may cut across this surface, transforming movement into a moment of pause, with water on both sides and reflections that shift throughout the day. In another courtyard, a high-fired ceramic fountain-sculpture by Luis Zárate incorporates a vertical garden while allowing water to cascade gently across its surface. Its presence shapes the light, moderates the courtyard’s temperature and accompanies movement with a soft, almost domestic sound.

Art further enriches the character of the complex through a series of interventions placed along the journey. The entrance gates and metal screens reinterpret the design of a bracelet by the renowned visual artist Francisco Toledo, translated to the architectural scale through cut and folded metal elements that preserve the handcrafted memory of the original gesture. Acting as a precise architectural skin, they filter sunlight and cast shifting shadows through a robust material expression. These works are complemented by Luis Zárate’s vertical ceramic piece and the silhouettes by Fulvio Capurso that appear on the rooftop, outlined against the sky. Each intervention integrates naturally into the house, forming part of a domestic landscape where art and architecture exist on the same scale. Casa B embodies RootStudio’s integrated approach to design, where architecture, construction, interior design and artistic collaboration form part of a single creative process.