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    Eight brutalist Mexican interiors that prove concrete doesn’t have to feel cold

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    Raw concrete surfaces are softened by timber and plenty of daylight inside these Mexican houses, rounded up here as part of our latest lookbook.

    Many of these brutalist interiors leave their concrete shells exposed and their cavernous rooms largely unadorned.
    But freed of the constraints posed by frigid temperatures, they also create a greater connection to the outside, whether overlooking Puerto Escondido’s wave-swept beaches or nestled in the bustling metropolis of Mexico City.
    Here, concrete surfaces help to create a sense of seamlessness between indoor and outdoor spaces – often separated only by removable partitions – while unfinished natural materials, such as wood or stone, are brought into the interior.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with exposed services, primary-coloured living spaces and houses with outdoor showers.

    Photo by Rory GardinerCasa Alférez, Cañada De Alferes, by Ludwig Godefroy
    Tucked away in the forest outside Cañada De Alferes near Mexico City, this brutalist holiday home has a board-formed concrete shell.
    This is left on display throughout its entire interior, all the way down to the bedrooms (top image) and the double-height lounge (above).
    To bring a sense of homeliness to its otherwise spartan living spaces, architect Ludwig Godefroy added warm wooden floors and lush pops of green – as seen across upholstery and lighting fixtures.
    Find out more about Casa Alférez ›
    Photo by Onnis Luque and Fabian MartinezLa Casa del Sapo, Playa Zapotengo, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
    The kitchen of this seafront home – set right on Oaxaca’s Zapotengo beach – can be merged with its neighbouring patio using a wide wooden folding door.
    All-around concrete helps to underline this fusion, while also serving a practical function in the form of a kitchen island and matching shelves.
    Find out more about La Casa del Sapo ›
    Photo by César BéjarThe Hill in Front of the Glen, Morelia, by HW Studio
    Reminiscent of the Hobbit houses in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, this sunken home is nestled into a hillside in the forests of Michoacán in central Mexico.
    The building’s interiors are defined by its concrete vaulted ceilings, which can be seen in every room, while log benches and full-height glazing provide a visual link to the woodland outside.
    Find out more about The Hill in Front of the Glen ›
    Photo by Rory GardinerCasa Mérida, Mérida, by Ludwig Godefroy
    Mayan architecture and craftsmanship informed the design of this otherwise brutalist house in Yucatán state, which is considered the capital of the indigenous civilisation.
    The home’s perimeter walls, for example, have joints covered in stone splinters that take cues from the design of Mayan pyramids and temples. These are left exposed on the interior alongside the concrete ceilings, creating a rich medley of architectural references.
    Find out more about Casa Mérida ›
    Photo by Rafael GamoPachuca Apartments, Mexico City, by PPAA
    Concrete slabs pave both the patio and living spaces in this Mexico City house to create a sense of continuity, only separated by a full-height glass wall that can be completely pushed open.
    On the interior, the rough concrete finishes are contrasted with details in American white oak, among them a long dining table as well as a staircase with treads that slot into a huge bookshelf.
    Find out more about Pachuca Apartments ›
    Photo by Dane Alonso and Mariano Renteria GarnicaCasa UC, Morelia, by Daniela Bucio Sistos
    Neutral colours and tactile materials are found throughout this home in the city of Morelia, including raw concrete ceilings and floors finished in a honey-toned tropical timber called caobilla.
    In the library, the same wood was also used to form integrated shelves and a huge porthole window that can be pivoted open and closed like a door.
    Find out more about Casa UC ›
    Photo by Sandra PereznietoCasa Aguacates, Valle de Bravo, by Francisco Pardo
    Mexican architect Francisco Pardo repurposed the pinewood formwork used in the process of constructing this concrete house to form a series of partition walls throughout the home.
    The resulting interior layout is simple and fluid and centres on an open-plan kitchen, dining area and living room that open up onto a sunken garden.
    Find out more about Casa Aguacates ›
    Photo by Rory GardinerZicatela, Puerto Escondido, by Emmanuel Picault and Ludwig Godefroy
    Set in the small surf town of Puerto Escondido, this weekend home accommodates its main living areas inside a covered patio and is made almost entirely of concrete.
    The only exceptions are the doors and sliding louvred wood screens that can be used to open the space up to the gardens on either side, as well as a few sparse furnishings such as the low-slung dining table, which is made from a cross-sectioned tree trunk.
    Find out more about Zicatela ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with exposed services, primary-coloured living spaces and houses with outdoor showers.

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      Arched precast concrete panels form North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon

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      Precast concrete panels punctuated with swooping arches make up this family home in Perth, Australia, designed by architect Nic Brunsdon.Nic Brunsdon squeezed the two-storey house onto a tight plot of land for a family keen to live closer to the city of Perth and all its amenities – even though it meant downsizing from their former property.

      Working with a restricted budget, the architect and his eponymous studio decided to use precast concrete panels as the main building material.

      “By using this commercial construction system as the main conceptual organising principle, the project was able to gain significant budget and time savings, while maintaining legible design integrity and innovation in housing type,” the studio said.

      North Perth House comprises eight precast concrete panels that are arranged in a grid-like formation. The ground floor has a sequence of four panels that run horizontally from east to west.
      “On the ground floor these panels demarcate layers of privacy from the street front back towards the rear of the property, each signifying a threshold leading deeper into the private life of the house,” explained the studio.

      On the first floor are another four panels that have been turned 90 degrees to run perpendicularly from north to south.
      These arches slot neatly into notches that have been made in the concrete panels on the ground floor.

      The concrete panels are punctuated with arches – a shape that one of the clients was particularly fond of as it brought back childhood memories of the arched doorways that appeared in their grandmother’s home.
      Narrow arching doorways connect different living spaces throughout North Perth House. On the ground floor, these arches have been made to sit in line with each other so that there are clear sightlines from the front to the rear of the home.

      The larger arches form windows or striking decor features. For example, one has been filled with bookshelves, while another has been inlaid with warm-hued timber to create a dramatic headboard in the master bedroom.
      Timber is one of the three materials that Nic Brunsdon opted to apply throughout the interior – it has also been used for the cabinetry in the kitchen, staircase balustrades and sideboards.

      Concrete has then been left exposed across the walls and floor, while insulated polycarbonate sheeting has been fitted in some of the windows to diffuse the harsh sunlight.

      Arches puncture floors and walls of Glebe House by Chenchow Little Architects

      Pops of colour in North Perth House are provided by a selection of contemporary artworks.
      “The simplicity of the design belies the complexity of the resulting spaces that are created; spaces that are compressed and dark, high and washed, raw and unfinished, and rich and intimate,” added the studio.

      Nic Brunsdon is based in Perth’s South Freemantle suburb. The architect is longlisted in the hospitality building category of this year’s Dezeen Awards for his project The Tiing – a boutique hotel in Bali that features rugged concrete walls that were cast against bamboo.
      Its 14 guest rooms are each shaped like funnels, directing views towards the jungle on one side and the ocean on the other.
      Photography is by Ben Hosking.

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      Triple-perspective living room forms core of Casa Meco in Portugal

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      Atelier Rua has arranged living spaces in this pared-back Portuguese holiday home around an enormous living room, which has three different vistas of its verdant surroundings. Situated south of Lisbon in the small village of Aldeia do Meco, the one-storey concrete house is shared by a retired Dutch couple. The pair were keen to work […] More