Project Name: House Río

Location: Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico

Design Team: LABarq

Total Floor Area: 559 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Ariadna Polo

Feature: LABarq's "House Río" demonstrates how innovative V-shaped configuration strategies and masterful topographic response design philosophy fusion techniques can transform a residence on an irregular trapezoidal plot into a contemporary living sanctuary of landscape continuity and spatial transparency.

This 559-square-meter residence dramatically sits upon undulating terrain, presenting itself as a profound meditation on contemporary Mexican residential lifestyle integration, topographic adaptability, and architectural lightness fusion. Through carefully considered spatial organization and material selection, it creates a living experience that seamlessly weaves functionality with natural environment.

The project's most compelling design feature lies in its fundamental response and reimagining of site challenges. Confronting the complex conditions of an irregular trapezoidal plot, the architects employed a V-shaped plan configuration to create a central garden as the organizational heart of the residence, while framing views of the surrounding natural landscape. This design strategy creates continuous dialogue between architecture and natural environment, achieving a spatial dissolution effect that allows the architecture to recede visually among the trees.

LABarq's design language fluently expresses contemporary Mexican architectural vernacular, employing strategic facade contrasts and structural lightness to redefine living experiences within natural landscapes. Front and side facades present sober and solid forms as privacy barriers, while the rear opens completely through floor-to-ceiling windows, dissolving indoor-outdoor boundaries. This bold duality strategy not only adds privacy to spaces but cleverly accommodates contemporary family life's dual demands for openness and privacy.

Most remarkably, the architects create a light structural system through clever manipulation of slender steel columns, plates, and metal tensioners. The side walls of the first volume float above the ground, intensifying the perception of lightness and transparency. In the bedrooms, metal tensioners not only regulate sunlight but also direct views, enhancing connection with the outside environment. This structural design is integrated as part of the architectural language, achieving wide spans while creating a visual effect where "architecture floats above the landscape."

The residence is organized into two main volumes. The first sloped volume adapts to the terrain's incline, housing social spaces including a double-height living room and dining area, an office with independent access, and a mezzanine that amplifies interior space. Externally, a pool and fire pit create continuity between architecture and landscape. The second volume concentrates service spaces on the ground floor, including kitchen, TV room, terraces, and circulation core, as well as a basement with storage rooms and service quarters. The upper floor is dedicated to private spaces, with a master bedroom featuring a walk-in closet and three secondary bedrooms that strategically open towards the northwest facade, achieving controlled views without compromising privacy.

Material strategy continues this harmonious coexistence design philosophy between architecture and context. Integration with context is reinforced through the use of local resources, including Santo Tomás marble, walnut veneer, and wood-like ribbed paneling, which interact with dry gardens of controlled gravel and native low-water vegetation. The project replaces traditional grass with sustainable landscaping, reducing environmental impact and reinforcing connection to territory, demonstrating LABarq's commitment to environmental responsibility and regional authenticity.

Design Team：LABarq stands as a distinguished representative of contemporary Mexican architectural practice, founded in Querétaro in 2013 by architect Juan Carlos Kelly and architect Paulina Moreno, having established a pioneering reputation in contemporary residential, commercial and institutional design, and contextually sensitive architectural language innovation since its founding. This Querétaro-based practice redefines contemporary Mexican architects' role in international design discourse through coordinated integration of design and natural landscapes.

LABarq brings exceptional topographic responsiveness design perspectives and deep understanding of material integration approaches to architectural practice. The practice has garnered recognition for its commitment to harmoniously integrating projects with surrounding morphology and natural landscapes, creating spatial experiences that dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior. Its innovative contributions have received significant awards, including the prestigious Obra Award for Aristóteles 235 housing complex in Mexico City, the Interceramic Award for Distrito Marqués, and third place in the Noldi Schreck Award for Lomas del Campanario Norte.

The firm's design philosophy emphasizes that architecture should transcend formal limitations, designed not merely to satisfy functional requirements but to organically merge with surrounding environment and natural landscapes. Through deep attention to site-specific recognition and spatial continuity, working across diversified works from condominiums and residential housing to commercial and institutional projects, they believe the best architecture results from contextually responsive interventions through precise and thoughtful processes. LABarq believes architecture should serve as a carrier of inhabitants' lifestyles, creating unique architectural experiences through strategic spatial organization and local material selection.

Beyond practice, through thoughtful integration of local materials with modern construction methods, topographic conditions and structural innovation application, and tested sustainable landscape wisdom, LABarq has established itself as a significant contributor to contemporary Mexican architectural discourse, creating architectural works that are both environmentally responsive and maintain architectural excellence. Under the continued leadership of Kelly and Moreno, the firm currently occupies a unique position within Mexico's dynamic architectural landscape, focusing on creating spatial experiences that achieve architectural quality through material integration, structural innovation, and contextual sensitivity.