To the east of the city of Toluca, in the municipality of San Mateo Atenco, lies Casa Nogal, a single-family home designed by the Mexican architectural team Escobedo Soliz. Framed by a semi-rural setting, the house presents itself as a neutral concrete envelope that blends discreetly with the neighboring homes.

Outwardly, the prismatic container aligns with the street front, revealing little about what happens inside. Behind the doors, the house opens onto a large rear garden, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.

Construction in stages was one of the requirements for the construction of Casa Nogal. In response to this need, Escobedo Soliz initially opted to build a tall rectangular prism made of concrete and cement blocks, which would accommodate the family's growth.

The layout of the home, built for a newlywed couple, is summarized as an open ground floor, which houses the public areas of the house, and a brick volume that houses the service areas.

Inside, the contents contrast with the cold concrete envelope, exploring the warmth of industrialized brick and how it responds in different ways to the incidence of sunlight throughout the day.

Nogal House by Escobedo Soliz. Photography by Ariadna Polo.

Project description by Escobedo Soliz 

This house is located in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Toluca. The clients, a newlywed couple, were looking for an affordable home that could be built in stages, adapting to the growth of their family.

The first stage of the house consists of a high-ceilinged pavilion in the shape of a rectangular prism, built with concrete and cement blocks. This volume aligns with the street front and opens onto the spacious backyard garden. Inside this space, there is another rectangular prism made of ribbed industrial brick, which houses the service areas (bathroom, water storage, and fireplace). The rest of the space is an open floor plan that accommodates the home's public areas: study, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Above the kitchen, a wooden loft contains the bedroom. The roof slab is constructed using a system of prestressed beams and industrial ceramic coffers, while the ground floor features industrial ceramic tiles.

Nogal House by Escobedo Soliz. Photography by Ariadna Polo.
Nogal House by Escobedo Soliz. Photography by Ariadna Polo.

With this house, we explore the haptic and chromatic possibilities of industrialized brick on different surfaces and interior elements, contrasting them with a neutral concrete envelope. The warm light reflecting off the ceramic tints the interior block walls with sepia tones that change throughout the day, creating a cozy atmosphere.

From the outside, the house presents itself discreetly, barely revealing what happens inside. The gray block and concrete envelope blend in with the surrounding houses and party walls, built with the same exposed materials.

More information

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Architects
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Project team
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Pavel Escobedo, Andrés Soliz, Diana Rico, Gabriel Angélico, Alberto Hernandez, Luca Ballarin.

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Collaborators
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Lighting.- Escobedo Soliz.
Structural Design.- Adalberto Estrada.
Engineering.- Sergio Ayala.

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Builder
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Escobedo Soliz. 

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Dates
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2025.

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Location
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San Mateo Atenco, Mexico.

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Photography
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Escobedo Soliz was founded in 2011 as a young architecture practice, based in Mexico City. The practice is based on a continuous search in which various forms of experimentation and investigations of design processes are as important as the final product. Each of the projects addresses the particularities of every situation to develop a response that has very strong ties to its context. It is essential to truly experience and live close (or in) to the site as it provides solutions that, although intuitive, begin to make an architecture that belongs to its place.

Lazbent Pavel Escobedo Amaral. (Nayarit, 1988) Architect from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Disciple of Humberto Ricalde. He has worked with Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo Architects in Mexico City and is currently teaching as an assistant professor at UNAM, Mexico City. 

​Andres Soliz Paz. (Mexico City, 1990)Architect from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Guest student at Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. He has worked with NGB Architects, Taller Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo, Nicolas Vazquez Architects and Studio MMX and is currently teaching as an assistant professor at UNAM, Mexico City. 

Awards.-
- In 2018 Escobedo Soliz was selected to participate in the Mexican pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale "Free Space".
- In 2019 they were Guest professors at the IUAV di Venezia for the Workshop W.A.ve 2019.
- Since 2016 Pave and Andrés have been project teachers at the UNAM Faculty of Architecture.
- In 2020 Escobedo Soliz was awarded the Emerging Voices of the Architectural League of New York.
- In 2020 Escobedo Soliz was selected to participate in the Mexican pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale "how we will live together".
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Published on: March 16, 2025
Cite: "Container and content. Nogal House by Escobedo Soliz" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/container-and-content-nogal-house-escobedo-soliz> ISSN 1139-6415
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