In the small coastal town of La Punta Zicatela, Oaxaca in Mexico—where Pacific light bends through salt air and jungle humidity—Ludwig Godefroy’s Casa TO emerges like a mirage of contemplative mass.
At first glance, the structure appears monolithic, an opaque sentinel against the ever-shifting seascape. But step inside, and it becomes a sanctuary of light, silence, and texture—a kind of secular temple reimagined in poured concrete and local craftsmanship, where nature is both framed and foregrounded.
Godefroy’s design draws on the lexicon of ancient water architecture, referencing the sunken vaults of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul and the geometries of Hornsey Wood Reservoir in London. Yet Casa TO is no mere homage; it is a formal distillation. The 600-square-meter residence is a choreography of elemental gestures: austere planes, rhythmic colonnades, and a lush courtyard teeming with vines, passionfruit, and banana trees. Here, privacy and exposure are negotiated by the sky itself, which acts as both ceiling and escape.
The interior draws chromatic cues from a singular vegetal presence—the blue Madagascar palm (Bismarckia nobilis) that once grew on the site—informing a palette of mineral greys, sea-touched turquoise, and sun-baked yellows. Materials are left unvarnished and tactile: concrete, steel, clay, wood. This rawness is not brutal but generous, inviting the visitor to slow down and sense the weight of time in texture.
In a gesture that transcends décor, the furniture within Casa TO is crafted by local artisans from Puebla, Guadalajara, and Oaxaca. These are not anonymous pieces but stories rendered in bamboo and timber, designed by Tiago Solís Van Beuren and others, and made available to guests through a fair-trade system. It’s a model of hospitality that merges economy and ethics, offering an intimate portal into regional making cultures.
