Casa Luz is an architectural and interior design intervention within an existing house in Oaxaca City. It reflects on how to inhabit space from a local perspective, without resorting to nostalgic or literal gestures. The proposal is grounded in a sensitive reading of its context, where materiality, light, and craftsmanship become the primary means of expression.
Rather than a radical transformation, the project begins by acknowledging the house’s pre-existing conditions, reconfiguring them through precise interventions that enhance both functionality and spatial quality. The incorporation of curved elements, the opening of visual connections, and the continuity between spaces create a more fluid domestic experience, where circulation becomes an essential part of living.
One of the main challenges was to strike a balance between the contemporary and the vernacular. Instead of replicating traditional forms, the project adopts a restrained material palette that emphasizes texture, color, and imperfection as aesthetic values. Walls finished with a limewash technique acquire a vibrant quality that shifts with natural light, while microcement accents in soft pink tones introduce contrast and depth.
The integration of local materials and processes is central to the design. Clay pieces crafted by Oaxacan artisans are seamlessly incorporated into the space, establishing a direct dialogue between architecture and craft. Similarly, the use of carrizo (reed) in the ceilings adds warmth, improves acoustic performance, and reinforces the project’s identity through its tactile and constructive qualities.
Lighting is conceived as a tool to reveal the architecture. Through warm fixtures and a strategy that combines natural and artificial light, the spaces take on different atmospheres throughout the day, emphasizing relief, texture, and transitions.
Rather than imposing an image, the project constructs an atmosphere: a home that, through restraint and precision, proposes a way of living connected to the essential—matter, light, and time. In this sense, architecture is not presented as an object, but as a framework for everyday life, deeply rooted in its context.
