In the heart of Mexico City, local architectural firm Talleresque has completed Casa Flotante (Floating House), a treehouse-like oasis in the forest. Elevated on nine stilts, the three-story home and work studio stands tall and narrow, mimicking the surrounding trees. As a celebration of indoor-outdoor living, the house is built of locally sourced materials and large glazed windows that pulls the outdoors in.
Raised above sloped terrain, Casa Flotante floating house is anchored into the forest floor and spans a total area of 936 square feet. The base, which consists of nine pillars organized in a grid layout, supports a large timber platform above and has space for storage and a water cistern below. A short flight of stairs leads to the first floor, where nearly half the area is used as an outdoor living room edged in with planters. Inside is a compact living space with a workspace that faces the outdoors, a kitchenette and dedicated area for the drum set.
An outdoor staircase wraps around the slender home to the second floor where the bathroom and shower is located, and then winds up once more to the final floor where the bedroom is found. Timber is the predominate material used in the project, from the exterior cladding and stair treads to the interior walls, floors, ceilings and furnishings. Floor-to-ceiling windows, large glazed openings and skylights illuminate every the floating house like a lantern, creating a constant connection with the outdoors.
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“Casa Flotante is much more than all its spaces,” says Juan De La Rosa of Talleresque. “It’s a bridge between nature and shelter, which invites all trees and plants inside. The behavior is not to dominate but to reflect. To give into the landscape… like a mirror. Made of light and reflections, the atmosphere multiplies its views and sensations. Size and proportion lets one ascend in a spiral, through the house between the studio and the bedroom: Between pleasure and creation; through thoughts and dreams.”
Images by Studio Chirika
