Casa San Francisco is a vineyard house on the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende that translates monastic precedents into a quiet domestic order. Five masonry volumes, linked by a transverse corridor and anchored by a double-height threshold, structure a sequence of outward-looking rooms and landscaped courts. A concise palette of local stone, unpolished Mexican marble, and hand-applied lime paint builds durable, light-toned masses that register climate and time, while controlled apertures, warm luminance, and restrained oak furnishings align interior life with the seasonal cycles of the vineyard.
Casa San Francisco Technical Information
- Architects: Jorge Garibay Arquitectos
- Location: San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
- Photographs: © Cesar Belio
We treated time as a material, allowing stone, lime, and light to record use and season. The house does not resist aging, it learns from it.
– Jorge Garibay
Terroir, Time, and Monastic Lineage
The project reads the vineyard context through a cultural lens shaped by 16th-century Franciscan convents in central Mexico. Rather than literal imitation, it distills that lineage into an order of courtyards, thresholds, and measured movement that privileges contemplation. The design engages the notion of terroir as both soil and custom, acknowledging how imported architectural types historically adapted to local climate, materials, and labor to produce new spatial hybrids.
Time operates as an explicit design parameter. Surfaces are selected to weather, accept patina, and document seasonal cycles without concealment. The house is conceived less as a finished object than as a framework for atmosphere, in which stone absorbs heat and cools, limewash softens and mottles under the sun, and landscape growth calibrates enclosure and exposure. A cloister-like cadence is translated into a domestic setting, with sequences that slow circulation and invite pauses oriented to the vineyard’s changing canopy.
Spatial Structure and Processional Order
Five discrete volumes organize the program along a transverse corridor that sets the project’s primary axis. Arrival occurs through a double-height vestibule that mediates exterior glare and interior calm. This threshold establishes hierarchy, after which the corridor choreographs a legible procession. Rooms are not concatenated spaces but autonomous pieces assembled around landscaped voids, an approach that clarifies orientation and reduces internal noise transfer.
Public functions occupy the western wing, including dining, terrace, kitchen, living, garage, and service zones. Bedrooms sit to the east, insulated from the activity of communal areas and evening solar gain. Each volume is oriented to a distinct garden or vineyard view to produce gradients of openness, specific microclimates, and framed horizons. The result is a system of outdoor rooms that extend interior routines into the landscape while preserving privacy and acoustic separation.
Material Discipline and Constructive Logic
A disciplined palette governs both expression and performance. Locally quarried stone forms the primary envelope, read as sober, monochromatic masses. Floors in unpolished Mexican marble provide a dense, tactile surface that takes on a legible wear pattern over time. Hand-applied lime paint brings chromatic coherence to the assemblies, its mineral sheen responding subtly to light variation throughout the day.
Traditional techniques are not treated nostalgically but as robust, reparable construction. Lime-based finishes remain vapor permeable and easily renewed, avoiding sealed skins that age unevenly. The stone’s thermal mass moderates diurnal swings typical of the region’s semi-arid highland climate, while light-toned surfaces reflect solar gain and reduce overheating. The material economy limits embodied complexity and supports long-life maintenance, allowing aging to be read as part of the building’s narrative rather than a defect to be concealed.
Light, Interior Atmosphere, and Furnishing
Artificial lighting is calibrated to warm temperatures evocative of historic convent interiors, yet it maintains adequate illuminance for contemporary domestic use. Daylight enters through controlled apertures that emphasize depth and shadow, privileging contrast over uniform brightness. Deep reveals and the mass of the walls temper glare, creating pockets of calm adjacent to framed outward views.
Oak furniture is kept deliberately restrained, supporting spatial clarity instead of competing with the masonry and light. This reduction foregrounds the grain of material and the cadence of illumination as the primary agents of character. Vistas are edited rather than panoramic, aligning interior life with the rhythms of pruning, growth, and harvest in the vineyard. Terraces and planted courts act as mediating spaces where air movement, shade, and filtered light extend the interior atmosphere into the landscape.
About Jorge Garibay Arquitectos
Founded in Mexico City, Jorge Garibay Arquitectos focuses on creating emotionally resonant spaces rooted in simplicity, context, and identity. Since its inception, the studio has emphasized connecting with the site and users to distill the essence of each project. Their architectural approach seeks to balance tradition and contemporaneity through elemental materials, environmental sensitivity, and a thoughtful spatial narrative.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Private commission
- Other contributors (Lighting Design): Inspired by historic 16th-century convent interiors
