Casa Sombras begins with a poetic image: inspiration descends from the sky, alights in the library on the upper level, and travels through the house until it reaches the art studio, where it takes form in the hands of its inhabitants. Conceived as a body with a mind and a heart, the house transforms an elevation change of more than 15 meters into a sequence of contemplation, rest, and creation.
Located in Cerro del Vigía, on one of Zihuatanejo’s highest hills, the residence opens toward the bay and the Pacific Ocean. The project was conceived as a permanent home for a couple involved in creative disciplines who, after living in different cities across Mexico, chose Zihuatanejo as the place to settle. Rather than a vacation home, they envisioned a refuge that could accommodate their daily lives, artistic practice, and gatherings with friends.
The program included three bedrooms, an art studio, spaces for reading and audiovisual entertainment, and a generous social area organized around the kitchen. The owners sought an architecture of clean lines and restrained composition, conceived as a singular work in which every element responds to a deliberate intention.
The site’s steep slope—with an elevation difference of more than 15 meters between the access road and the lower street—determined the organization of the project. This condition was compounded by the condominium’s regulations, which limited construction to six meters above street level to preserve neighboring views and required walls to step down along the hillside.
The response was to distribute the program across three levels without allowing the house to be perceived as a volume of that height. From the street, the predominantly solid elevation protects privacy and presents a single-story composition. The upper volume appears to rest on the remainder of the structure like an object placed on a pedestal, while most of the house adapts to the slope and descends toward the landscape.
From the parking area, a contained entrance sequence leads to the social level. Upon crossing the closed street elevation, the space suddenly opens toward the bay. The living room, dining room, and kitchen form a continuous environment that extends onto the terrace and infinity pool, making the transition between interior, exterior, and horizon almost imperceptible.
From this level, one staircase leads to the upper volume, which contains the primary bedroom and spaces dedicated to reading and entertainment. Another descends to the guest bedrooms and art studio. This arrangement allows the house to be used without constantly moving through all three levels while keeping the private areas out of sight from the entrance.
Within the program, the house was imagined as a body with a mind and a heart. Rest and contemplation are concentrated on the upper level; below, the studio allows ideas to acquire physical form. The vertical relationship between these spaces stems from the notion that inspiration descends from the sky, travels through the house, and materializes through creative work.
The name Casa Sombras does not derive from its darker tones, but from the need to find shelter from Zihuatanejo’s intense climate. Shifts between volumes, deep overhangs, covered transitions, and perimeter planters create shade, filter solar radiation, and protect privacy without interrupting the relationship with the landscape.
The materiality reinforces the project’s restrained character through a palette of whites, grays, blacks, and natural tones. Polished cement finishes retain their original color without added pigments and are combined with gray marble, clay brick, parota wood, and locally sourced aggregates. Individually laid river stones at the bottom of the pool further extend this connection to the surroundings. In response to the region’s seismic activity, the house is built with reinforced load-bearing walls and structural concrete elements.
Casa Sombras seeks not to impose itself on its surroundings. Its height preserves neighboring views, its volumes follow the slope, and its palette allows the vegetation, bay, and light to become the true protagonists. Once inhabited, the house found its meaning in the owners’ everyday experience: “We feel that we belong here.”
