Casa Malonic Guerrero, Mexico
HW Studio creates a retreat where architecture is reduced to ground, roof, shadow and horizon, allowing the landscape of Mexico’s Pacific coast to become the true protagonist.
At Casa Malonic, the landscape already seems complete before architecture arrives. The Pacific Ocean stretches toward an infinite horizon, while dense tropical vegetation occupies the site with an almost sacred presence. Light, stone, flowers, trees and wildlife form an environment so powerful that the house could not simply be placed within it as an independent object.
Instead, HW Studio approached architecture as a means of establishing a relationship with the land.The concept was reduced to a few essential elements:
A ground.
A roof.
A shadow.
The house evokes the simplicity of an enramada, a basic shelter beneath a canopy. Rather than reproducing traditional architecture literally, the project returns to an elemental idea of inhabiting: being protected from sun and rain while remaining deeply connected to the surrounding landscape.
Architecture shaped by the horizon
At Casa Malonic, the horizon is not simply a framed view from the interior. It is the condition from which the entire house is conceived.
The ground reinforces this connection with the site. Its tone and texture recall the sand of the nearby beach, creating the impression that the landscape continues beneath the shade of the roof. Materiality is therefore not used to imitate nature, but to establish a sensory continuity with it.
Architecture is experienced through the feet before it is fully understood through the eyes.
The white surfaces of the house establish another connection with the site, taking inspiration from the white flowers of the nine Cacalosúchil trees surrounding the residence. The architecture consequently emerges from two fundamental conditions already present in the landscape: the earth and the colour white.
From enclosure to openness
The relationship with nature is deliberately revealed in stages.
From the street, Casa Malonic appears as a restrained white volume accompanied by a curved concrete wall. Following the geometry of the road, this wall creates a clear boundary between the public realm and the private refuge beyond.
Vegetation, rocks and topography reinforce this protective character, concealing much of the residence from view.
The entrance sequence eventually leads toward a circular courtyard enclosed by white walls. Here, the landscape begins to reappear.
Sky, sunlight and the crowns of surrounding trees become visible above the walls, while the architecture gradually loses its defensive character.
The circular courtyard creates a large void within the built volume. The wall is transformed from a continuous surface into an edge, allowing the surrounding landscape to penetrate the experience of the house.
A sequence between mass and void
Casa Malonic is organised around a gradual spatial transition.
From the street to the refuge.
From the refuge to the courtyard.
From the courtyard toward the horizon.
Architecture initially appears as a protective mass, but progressively dissolves until it becomes little more than a structure offering shade in front of the sea.
Between these contrasting conditions are the living spaces of the residence.
HW Studio does not attempt to reproduce nature or make the architecture completely disappear. Instead, the project establishes a carefully controlled relationship with the site through a limited series of gestures: containing, guiding, subtracting and opening.
The house ultimately becomes an exercise in equilibrium between matter and emptiness.
The white mass protects.
The curved wall guides.
The courtyard allows nature to enter.
The roof creates shade.
And beyond everything, the horizon remains.
Project information
Project: Casa Malonic
Architecture: HW Studio
Location: Punta Garrobo, Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico
Completion: June 2026
Area: 497 m²
Budget: USD 1,180,000
Lead Architect: Rogelio Vallejo Bores
Architects: Oscar Didier Ascencio Castro, Nik Zaret Cervantes Ordaz
Team: Juan Pablo Camacho Ayala
Structural Engineering: ARGA Constructora
Construction: COMAQSO
Photography: César Béjar
About HW Studio
HW Studio is a Mexican architecture practice founded with the ambition of creating spaces capable of encouraging calm, contemplation and inner peace.
Its design process is based on what the studio describes as three interconnected universes: the universe of the future inhabitant, the universe of the place and the inner universe of the designer.
Through this approach, HW Studio seeks to remove unnecessary architectural gestures and focus attention on essential experiences of space, material, silence and landscape.
The studio’s name reflects these ideas. The letter H, considered silent in Spanish, symbolises silence, while W refers to the Japanese concept of Wabi Cha, reinforcing the practice’s interest in restraint, contemplation and simplicity.
Architect: HW Studio
Website: hw-studio.com
Instagram: @hwstudioarq
Facebook: @hwstudioarquitectos
Photography: César Béjar
Photographer website: cesarbejarstudio.com