Featured Houses
House Between Two Rivers by Sebastián Mancera + Taller 3000
Acatitlán, Mexico

Photo © César Béjar
Architects & Firms
Location: Acatitlán, Valle de Bravo, Mexico
Project size: 7,000 square feet
Program: House Between Two Rivers is situated in a sloped clearing on a bosky ridge between, as its name suggests, two rivers—one to the north and the other to the south. Designed for a couple and their three adult children, this weekend house will one day become a home to retire in.
Design Solution: House Between Two Rivers nestles into the site’s slope, holding back earth with 16-foot-high retaining walls of bush-hammered concrete. Because of this siting, one arrives at the dwelling from the roof, where only three walls—each an element in a different wing of the house—are visible. (One wing contains the living space and the kitchen, another features a series of bedrooms, and the last shapes a small courtyard with a guest suite.)
An exterior stair leads residents beneath a cantilevered beam and down to the main level, where the living space, running parallel to the ridge and lined with a wall of bi-folding doors trimmed in Spanish cedar, faces west. The kitchen is tucked underground. Hidden behind shrubbery, the swimming pool is farther down the slope, as are the bedrooms, accessed internally through a trapezoidal stair. These rooms, oriented toward the south and built of cinderblock rendered with a thin coat of concrete, are punctuated by a trio of small planted lightwells. .

Photo © César Béjar
Additional Information
Completion date: April 2024
Site size: 2.5 acres
Total construction cost: Withheld
Client/Owner: Withheld













Photos © Photo © César Béjar






Images courtesy Sebastián Mancera + Taller 3000; click to enlarge
Credits
Architect
Sebastián Mancera + Taller 3000
Gob. Luis G Vieyra 38
San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico City, Mexico
www.taller3000.com
Project Team
Principal: Sebastián Mancera
Associate architect
Calli Arquitectura
Anahuac 31
Roma Sur, CDMX 06760
www.calli-mx.com
Engineers
Structural: Taller AE
M/e/p: Ingeniería MRG
General contractor: Grupo CM
Photographer
César Béjar
Specifications
Exterior Cladding
Wood: WeTimber
Moisture barrier: Sika
Windows
Wood frame: WeTimber
Doors
Wood doors: Oscar Nieto
Spanish Cedar bi-folding doors: WeTimber
Hardware
Locksets: Arrone
Door levers: Hoppe
Hinges: Tectus
Interior Finishes
Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: Oscar Nieto
Floor and wall tile: Talavera Cortés
Furnishings
Dining Tables, sofa: Seb3000
Lighting
Dimming system or other lighting controls: Leviton
Plumbing
Faucets: American Standard
Showerheads: Helvex
Basins: Kohler
Toilets: Interceramic