Salvador Román and Adela Mortera design Casa Gruta in Valladolid, Yucatán, as a residence shaped by the spatial memory of caves, grottos and cenotes. Located in the Sisal neighborhood, the house uses scale, materiality, light and shadow to create the feeling of an inhabitable refuge, somewhere between architecture and sculpture.
HOUSING
The project responds directly to its context. The Yucatán Peninsula’s geological formations guide the design, especially the sequence of underground caverns and cenotes where narrow passages open into larger chambers. Casa Gruta translates that experience into domestic space. Rooms compress and expand, creating a movement through the house that feels gradual, physical and atmospheric.
The entrance begins with an álamo tree, traditionally associated in Yucatán with the presence of nearby underground formations. This gesture leads visitors into an open-air vestibule and recalls ancient Maya rituals connected to entering cenotes. From the start, the house frames arrival as a passage, shifting the body from exterior heat into a more introspective interior rhythm.
Material choices reinforce that relationship to the land. The palette draws from the colors and textures of Yucatán’s natural formations, giving the architecture a restrained and tactile character. Concrete, earthy tones and sculptural surfaces shape a brutalist language softened by vegetation, light and the presence of open air. The result feels solid without becoming closed, raw without losing warmth.
Light plays a central role in the project’s atmosphere. Shadows move across the surfaces throughout the day, changing the perception of depth and scale. The dialogue between new interventions and existing structures gives the house a layered quality, allowing time to become part of the architecture. Casa Gruta does not present space as fixed. It lets material, light and use slowly transform it.
The residence was conceived as a sanctuary for introspection. Beyond its formal references, the house addresses the speed of contemporary life by creating spaces that encourage pause and contemplation. Its grotto-like character offers a different kind of domestic luxury, one based on silence, shade, texture and a deeper connection to place.
With a built area of 254 square meters, Casa Gruta brings together residential architecture, landscape and interior design through a clear narrative. Salvador Román and Adela Mortera create a home that looks to the ancient formations of Yucatán while remaining grounded in contemporary life. The project becomes a green brutalist grotto, a house where architecture slows the body and gives time a physical form.
