Entre Pinos Houses / Taller Hector Barroso

Entre Pinos Houses Exterior View by Taller Hector Barroso

Entre Pinos (Among Pines) is a complex of five houses in the Bravo Valley completed in 2017 by Mexican architectural firm Taller Hector Barroso. The region is famous for out-of-town trips among the residents of Mexico City and has become a destination for escaping from the metropolis.

Entre Pinos Houses Technical Information

Architects^1-2: Taller Hector Barroso | Arq. Hector Barroso
Location: Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico, Mexico
Typology: Residential / Houses
Project Year: 2015-2017
Program: 5 private houses
Construction Area: 1800 m2
Photographs: © Rory Gardiner

The houses are deeply rooted in the landscape and constructed out of local materials such as brick, wood and soil. The soil, taken and reused from the excavations to bury the foundations, is the main material. Therefore, architecture emerges from the place.

– Taller Hector Barroso Architects

Entre Pinos Houses Photographs

Text by the Architects

In a vast forest area in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, five-weekend houses are dispersed along the ground, adapting to the site’s topography, surrounded by pine trees that echo the sound of the wind.

The site, equally divided into five parts, concentrates the access and common areas to the north, whereas to the south, the houses and gardens are placed.

By tilting the houses and dispersing them into volumes, the sense of a set of houses is lost; it becomes a cluster of masses and vegetation immersed in the place, drawing architecture closer to the human scale.

The houses are deeply rooted in the landscape and constructed out of local materials such as brick, wood, and soil. The soil, taken and reused from the excavations to bury the foundations, is the main material. Therefore, architecture emerges from the place.

Each house, identical in typology as the rest, is closed and solid towards the northern pathway, opening the views to the forest in the south.
The houses consist of six volumes positioned in such ways they generate a void, a central courtyard that grants views, silence, and intimacy. This courtyard becomes the central space of the house.

This compositional scheme of independent volumes creates a sequence of spaces that do not follow a straight linear path, instead, the inhabitant can saunter and linger, feeling different atmospheres in each space.

These volumes are excavated by the light that shatters the interior spaces, creating different paths that culminate with the gardens that merge with the surrounding forest. Moving between the combination of light and shadow, open and enclosed spaces, reveals new experiences to the inhabitant. It is through this freedom of movement that memories and a sense of place are evoked while experiencing new atmospheres through the changing sound and light.

This composition allows each volume to work almost independently, avoiding hierarchies and incorporating the architectural program. On the lower floor: living, dining, the kitchen, and one of the bedrooms expand their limits to the exteriors joining terraces, courtyards, and the garden, losing the boundaries between interior and exterior. On the upper floor, three bedrooms are placed, creating intimate spaces that frame the views to the magnificent pine trees.