A curved Dupuis Maribel modular sofa frames the living space, beside a Dupuis sisal rug and timber shelf, decorated with a Lola vase and ceramics by Perla Valtierra. Natural plaster coats the walls and ceiling with bush-hammered marble extending from the interior space to the outdoor garden.
Neighbouring the canopy of a Jacaranda tree, this Mexican home’s design is guided by greenery—responsive proportions, framing and reflective materiality fuse it into verdant surrounds.
In Mexico City’s west sits Casa Plan de Barrancas, a three-level residence designed by PPAA, founded by Pablo Pérez Palacios. The family home comprises open-plan living, kitchen and dining, three bedrooms and a study. With the client prioritising a home connected to the mature trees on site, appreciating its tranquil interior experience, starts with understanding a design strategy driven by multifaceted indoor connection to the outdoors.
Rimmed by metal fencing, the home welcomes guests into the ground floor, where a naturally lit, living space encourages gathering. The kitchen can be cordoned off behind a slatted timber divider, promoting focus out into the garden through ceiling-height glazing. Reflective materiality, including bush-hammered marble, diffuses the building’s edges into the yard creating a, “permeable plane connected to the landscape. The house avoids a traditional reading of closed, defensive architecture. Instead, the ground floor is perceived more as a landscape project than as an autonomous architectural object,” Pérez Palacios explains. The eye traces vines creeping along geometries of an external beam and staircase.
From the bright ground floor, a stone staircase transitions to the quieter upper floors where the architectural envelop is formed around established flora; a Jacaranda tree shaped the home’s orientation and the way second and third storeys cut away, leaving voids for its growth. “The shift of the upper volume in response to the Jacaranda. It’s a small gesture that produced a sheltered terrace, shadow, dialogue with the tree, and a particular quality of light on the upper façade. These voids align with PPAA’s philosophy. Unbuilt space—or “defined voids”—acquire the same design relevance as the built volumes,” Pérez Palacios says.
Bespoke kitchen cabinetry with a marble island bench backdrops a Dupuis dining table, chairs and sideboard with a Vitra Akari 1N table lamp by Isamu Noguchi. A sliding white oak door offers flexibility to separate kitchen and dining.
Pictured: Paulistano leather and chrome armchair and Manu Bañó OBJ-01 floor lamp.
The interior relationship to external greenery manifests differently on the upper levels as materials adjust to warmer, bespoke white oak timber cabinetry and shelving coating the walls. Windows frame curated views—aspects of intrigue selected without overwhelming the eye in these private zones.
Emphasising daylight’s rhythms, ceiling-light fixtures are minimised with floor and table lamps lending evening ambience. While natural light shapes how the home feels, functionally, the design’s solar-powered nature sustainably supports hot water and cooking systems.
With its design decisions considered holistically through a green-tinted lens, Casa Plan de Barrancas’ interior experience holds a deep responsiveness to surrounding vegetation. Its unique volumes, corresponding voids, reflective materiality and treatment of light, beyond connection, offer a comforting resonance.
Open to the airy ground floor below, the first-floor mezzanine features a PPAA-designed white oak bookshelf that traces the contours of the window, matching the timber balustrade, with a Dupuis linen-covered reading chair and Dupuis side table.
The primary bedroom, rimmed by PPAA-designed bespoke oak cabinetry with a white oak Dupuis beside side table and linen bedding, is materially warm with brushed, natural plaster adding earthy textures that respond to natural light.
PPAA-designed white oak cabinetry also lines the primary ensuite, continuing the natural materiality across restful and functional spaces alongside a PPAA-designed mármol arena or sand marble basin.
