RootStudio’s Casa Arco is a contemporary residence that builds its architectural story around a fragment of Oaxaca’s 17th-century aqueduct. Located in the Xochimilco neighborhood, the project does not treat the aqueduct as a relic but as the living centerpiece of a 200 m² home constructed on a compact 97 m² plot. The result is a residence that negotiates the line between history and modern habitation, bringing together traditional materials, contemporary forms, and artistic interventions.
HOUSING
The design preserves the aqueduct arch through a fully open ground floor, which frames uninterrupted views and creates a direct connection with air and light. Above it, RootStudio introduced a light metallic volume, while the lower level relies on tropical wood for a grounded atmosphere. This vertical hierarchy allows the project to maintain the aqueduct’s presence while organizing the program across three clearly defined layers, public, private, and intimate. The architecture reads as a careful composition of contrasts: permanence at the base and contemporary expression above.
The ground floor serves as a public space where the arch dominates, its scale and texture left unobstructed. The upper level contains a bedroom that captures morning light and frames views of Oaxaca’s urban fabric, while the lower bedroom, clad in tzalam wood, offers a warm retreat. Courtyards and skylights punctuate the house, creating ventilation and bringing daylight deep into the compact footprint. This spatial strategy emphasizes passive comfort over mechanical systems, using orientation and airflow as primary climatic tools.
Materiality anchors the project in its context. Green cantera stone and lime mortars recall the aqueduct’s original construction, while eucalyptus and tzalam woods add warmth. Structural steel and metal cladding introduce a precise, contemporary layer that speaks to the present without overwhelming the historic fragment. Concrete, brick, and artisan finishes reinforce the tactile quality of the house. The materials were chosen for durability, acoustic and thermal performance, and their ability to weather into the site’s historic character, ensuring the residence matures alongside its context.
Inside, architecture and furniture operate as a single vocabulary. RootStudio designed custom pieces, a solid wood dining table with exposed joinery, a modular low-back sofa, and built-in benches, that extend the project’s constructive clarity. Surfaces use earthy tones and organic finishes, while bathrooms combine stone sinks with resin aggregates. The kitchen, conceived as a social hub, pairs tropical wood cabinetry with brushed steel fittings. The most distinctive feature appears in the main living room’s steel ceiling, transformed into a canvas by artists Sabino Guisu and Doktor Lakra. Their interventions allow shifting light to animate the structure, integrating art into the building’s fabric.
Casa Arco emphasizes sustainability through contextual intelligence rather than technology. The preservation of the aqueduct avoids demolition waste, while the reliance on local materials minimizes transport impact. Passive ventilation, courtyards, and skylights provide thermal stability, reducing dependence on energy systems. Artisan labor safeguards traditional building methods, ensuring continuity in construction culture. These strategies position the project as an example of how design can address environmental concerns through restraint, resourcefulness, and respect for existing structures.
Casa Arco demonstrates how new architecture can inhabit historic contexts without reducing them to background. The residence amplifies the aqueduct’s presence rather than competing with it, transforming a fragment of infrastructure into the spatial and cultural anchor of contemporary life. RootStudio delivers a project that respects memory while enabling habitation, positioning architecture as a bridge between past and present in Oaxaca’s heritage-rich fabric.
