58 DIGS.NET
| 7.15.2022
P R O F I L E | N AT U R A L H O U S E
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This is introspective architecture, and Natura House its remark-
able result. A disciplined, intentional building and a spectacle
from the street. Not for its flash. But for its absence, and for its
architect's understanding of how to create an architecture that
articulates the transformational power of a void.
"We understand white architecture as a canvas where the
inhabitants will paint the spaces with their colors, their furniture,
paintings and personal objects," Cota Paredes says. "In this
architecture, the natural elements become focal points since
what predominates is emptiness. It feels poetic to look at the
trees in that courtyard, as if they were your only companion
in the solitude of the cave." A cenote or "White Cave," as the
practice imagined this project, "carved by light and time to be
kind to the inhabitant." A fundamental difference between a
good house and an actual home.
While an embrace of nature, the house is also stubbornly
self-contained. Achieving that meant employing "what we call
the screen wall," Cota Paredes explains, "a wall that divides
two voids and plays with the sou fujimoto concept of nested
or layered architecture." The use of uniform white, meanwhile,
helps extend the interior space outward, melding separate
spheres into one.
A cenote or "White Cave," as the practice
imagined this project, "carved by light and
time to be kind to the inhabitant."
