Casa Plan de Barrancas by PPAA is a 477.16 m2 house in western Mexico City that organizes domestic life through a contrast between a reflective, permeable ground floor and a compact upper volume shaped by privacy, vegetation, and the presence of an existing jacaranda tree.
Casa Plan de Barrancas Technical Information
- ArchitectsPPAA
- LocationMexico City, Mexico
- Gross Area477.16 m2 | 5,136 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years2024
- Photographs© Luis Garvan
We understand architecture as the simultaneous construction of matter and space, where the defined void holds the same relevance as the built volume.
– PPAA
Urban Threshold and the Dissolved Ground Plane
Casa Plan de Barrancas addresses the street through ambiguity rather than enclosure. Its lower level is not treated as a conventional facade with clearly legible openings, doors, and access to the garage. Instead, a continuous plane of brushed stainless steel integrates these functions into a single surface, turning the urban edge into a layered threshold where reflection, planting, and concealment mediate between the public sidewalk and the domestic interior.
The reflective base registers trees, pavement, sky, and passing light, reducing the apparent weight of the ground floor. This visual strategy is not merely optical. By masking the entrance and garage within the same metallic skin, the house resists the defensive character common to urban residential architecture. The threshold becomes harder to read as a boundary and easier to understand as a transitional condition shaped by vegetation and movement.
The existing jacaranda tree in front of the house is central to this reading. Its trunk and canopy frame the elevation, while a low planter extends the landscape condition along the street. The facade, therefore, depends on elements outside the built envelope: shadow, foliage, seasonal change, and reflection. Architecture here operates less as an autonomous object and more as a calibrated surface within a wider urban and botanical field.
Public Life as Landscape
The social areas of the house occupy the ground floor, where the plan is organized as an open, permeable field connected to the rear garden and the planted courtyards. Living, dining, and kitchen spaces are arranged with a degree of continuity that allows the domestic interior to function as part of the landscape sequence. Full height glass panels open the rooms toward vegetation, while the floor plane extends across thresholds to reduce the distinction between inside and outside.
Material continuity reinforces this spatial reading. Bush-hammered marble or stone flooring moves from interior rooms to covered terraces, giving the ground level a shared tactile surface. The glazing does not simply provide views; it creates operational edges that can be opened, crossed, and occupied. Courtyards, terraces, and garden passages become everyday extensions of the living areas rather than secondary exterior zones.
At the rear, the project establishes a more intricate relationship between the building and the garden. A central multi-stemmed tree, climbing vegetation, stone paving, and a garden room beneath a steel beam structure create a sequence of outdoor and semi-outdoor spaces. Movement through the house is therefore organized by planted voids as much as by enclosed rooms. The result is a ground floor in which public domestic life is structured by landscape, shade, and atmospheric variation.
Private Volume and Defined Void
Above the reflective base, the upper levels form a solid, matte volume that houses the private areas of the house. Its pale plaster surface, marked by fine vertical striations, contrasts with the reflective steel below. The distinction is spatial as well as material: openness and permeability define the ground floor, while mass, enclosure, and controlled views characterize the bedrooms, studies, and family spaces above.
The windows in the upper volume are selective and deep set, shaping a more deliberate relationship with the city. Rather than opening up broadly, they frame treetop views and limit street exposure. This strategy gives the private rooms a sense of protection without disconnecting them from their surroundings. The house privileges specific visual alignments, especially toward vegetation, over generalized transparency.
The placement of the upper volume responds to the jacaranda tree, shifting the mass to create a habitable terrace void. This offset is not a residual gesture. It reflects PPAA’s interest in the defined void as an active architectural component, equal in importance to built matter. The terrace created by this displacement becomes a spatial hinge between the tree canopy, the upper rooms, and the open ground plane below.
Material Continuity, Tectonics, and Environmental Strategy
The house relies on a restrained but sharply differentiated material palette. Brushed stainless steel gives the base a mutable, almost dematerialized presence, while the upper volume is defined by vertically striated plaster with a dry, opaque finish. Inside, stone floors reinforce continuity across the public ground floor, while wood flooring in the private rooms creates a warmer, more enclosed atmosphere. These shifts clarify the hierarchy between public openness and private containment.
Interior spaces extend the architectural logic through surface, light, and framed views. The sculptural stair, built with solid stone treads between smooth plaster walls, is lit from above by a narrow skylight that draws daylight down the vertical circulation core. Upper landings are spare and controlled, using small windows and clerestory openings to frame trees rather than expose broad panoramas. The study, bedrooms, and bathroom continue this calibrated approach through timber shelving, wood wardrobes, pale plaster, and windows positioned toward greenery.
The environmental strategy combines operational systems with material decisions. The house is designed to operate independently of the electrical grid using solar energy, while cooking and electric systems handle water heating to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. During construction, attention was given to materials with lower carbon footprints, positioning sustainability as part of the architectural brief rather than an applied technical layer.
About PPAA
PPAA (Perez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados) is a Mexico City based architecture practice led by Pablo Perez Palacios. The studio’s work is grounded in the simultaneous construction of matter and space, treating the unbuilt defined void with the same design relevance as the built volume.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Project team: Pablo Pérez Palacios, Emilio Calvo, Miguel Vargas, Adán García, Andrés Domínguez, Nancy Estevez, Marcelino Pacheco, Jonathan Reséndiz
