In a city where architectural interventions often contend with dense regulations and challenging topography, the ELEVATED BRUTALISM residence by Arroyo Solís Agraz emerges as a disciplined yet expressive response to these constraints. This 6365-square-foot stone-set house, completed in 2023 in Mexico City, offers more than a formal exercise in Brutalism—it embodies a dialogue between mass and void, geological anchoring and atmospheric lightness.
Brutalist House Technical Information
- Architects1: Arroyo Solís Agraz
- Location: Mexico City, Mexico
- Area: 591 m2 | 6,365 Sq. Ft.
- Completion Year: 2023
- Photographs: © Jaime Navarro
This stone-set house boldly integrates the strength of concrete in a brutalist style, making full use of the terrain’s topography and subdivision regulations.
– Arroyo Solís Agraz Architects
Brutalist House Photographs
Site Constraints and Design Intent
Situated on a terrain defined by its natural undulations and strict subdivision guidelines, the design began with an apparent contradiction: how to assert a contemporary architectural presence without defying the site’s topographic and regulatory realities. Rather than resisting these forces, the solution engaged them as fundamental design parameters.
Instead of leveling the land to fit a preconceived volume, the project strategically minimized excavation, respecting the site’s geological character. Urban height restrictions shaped the building’s massing, leading to a tripartite organization across three levels that cascade down the natural slope. This structural stratification became a necessity and an architectural opportunity, enabling a vertical narrative where the perception of space shifts dramatically from exterior to interior.
The design’s intent is neither to camouflage nor aggressively contrast the site. Instead, it seeks a tectonic balance, embedding the building within the land’s existing contours while allowing its structural clarity to assert a presence.
Spatial Experience and Perceptual Duality
From the street, the building reads as a monolith: a concrete volume that resists interpretation at first glance. Its brutalist expression—rigid, solid, and abstracted—conveys a sense of permanence. Yet this initial encounter belies the complex spatial choreography that unfolds within.
Once inside, the building disrupts its opacity. What appeared defensive becomes open, even porous. The internal spaces reveal a softened language, with careful proportions, filtered light, and tactile variation tempering the structural rigor. Vertical transitions—from the entrance down to the main living areas—are more than circulatory devices; they are experiential thresholds that reset scale and mood.
Large openings and calculated voids reveal panoramic views of the city, elevating daily domestic rituals into scenic experiences. Brutalism is not an aesthetic end but a framework through which light, gravity, and orientation are meaningfully negotiated.
Materiality as Architectural Argument
Concrete, the project’s protagonist, is used not merely for its structural performance but as an expressive medium. Its application is not decorative but declarative—a surface that resists embellishment yet rewards close attention through its material honesty and subtle modulation.
However, architecture does not remain loyal to one register. The interiors offer a material counterpoint: wood, stone, and glass introduce warmth and tactility, reframing the relationship between the body and the built environment. Where the exterior is about resisting time and context, the interior embraces changeability—of light, of seasons, of occupation.
This material duality reinforces the project’s spatial narrative. Concrete walls frame and protect; wooden elements invite touch and soften acoustics. Glass mediates inside and out, allowing visual permeability while maintaining a sense of enclosure.
Attention to detailing—from joint patterns to the transitions between materials—demonstrates a high level of technical and conceptual refinement. It is in these interstitial moments that the architecture speaks most clearly about its intentions: a choreography of weight and lightness, rawness and refinement.
A Broader Architectural Reflection
While Brutalism has often oscillated between revival and rejection, its appearance here is neither nostalgic nor ironic. It is recontextualized within the contemporary Latin American condition, where material honesty, climate responsiveness, and urban density converge in complex ways.
The project aligns with a lineage of regional brutalism—one that includes figures such as Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Teodoro González de León—but updates its language through an embrace of inhabitable softness and contextual nuance. This is not the heroic, institutional brutalism of the past, but a domestic reinterpretation: grounded, layered, and open to contradiction.
Brutalist House Plans
Brutalist House Image Gallery
About Arroyo Solís Agraz
Founded in 2014 in Mexico City by Salvador Arroyo, Alejandro Solís, and Rosa Agraz, Arroyo Solís Agraz is an architecture firm known for its diverse portfolio encompassing residential, commercial, and institutional projects. The firm’s design philosophy emphasizes contextual responsiveness and material expressiveness, as demonstrated in notable works like the Elevated Brutalism residence and the renovation of Bolerama Coyoacán.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Construction Budget: USD $1,250,000
