House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
House 720 Degrees
In the dramatic valley landscape of Reserva Peñitas, just a three-hour drive from Mexico City, a circular form emerges as if a UFO dropped out of the sky — albeit a sand-dusted one. It is, in fact, a spectacular home for two families designed by architect Fernanda Canales. Alongside the main house, the complex features an ancillary studio space and a rectangular volume with a patio, additional bedrooms, storage and services. All three structures are made of concrete tinted with the local soil using a hand-held cement mixer, allowing the home to settle into its site. The material, which does not require painting or cladding, was selected not only for its raw beauty but also its ability to survive a harsh climate where the temperature can fluctuate up to 30 degrees in a single day.
With such a picturesque view, it was impossible to orient the house in just one direction. But while the goal was to embrace the surrounding landscape as much as possible, there was still a desire for seclusion and escape, so Canales devised the nearly 40-metre doughnut-shaped plan to afford panoramic vistas of the nearby mountain and volcano — and the home’s central courtyard. The sum of these two 360-degree views gives the house its name. While the design might seem impractical, only the circulation takes on the rounded form; the rooms are all orthogonal, making them functional and easy to furnish. (True to Canales’s context-sensitive approach, most of the lamps and furniture were produced on site using readily available materials).
As its remote locale would suggest, House 720 Degrees operates completely off the grid, producing its own electricity through solar panels and harvesting rainwater (which is then heated by the solar panels for use in the hydronic radiant floors that run through the bedrooms). Its circular layout also lends itself to passive strategies, facilitating cross ventilation and admitting ample natural light throughout the day by opening up to two or three different orientations.
The design is as pragmatic as it is poetic: Like a solar clock, the circular home registers the passage of time through the ebb and flow of light and shadow. When the windows hiding inside the massive concrete walls are fully opened, the boundaries between indoors and out dissolve completely, and the building becomes one with nature.
Team: Fernanda Canales with Jonah Samson and John Gray Thomson
As its remote locale would suggest, House 720 Degrees operates completely off the grid, producing its own electricity through solar panels and harvesting rainwater.
