Enso II by HW Studio
In the mountains of Guanajuato, Mexico, HW Studio has completed Enso II, a small home designed in the image of its natural surroundings and honoured with an Award of Merit at the 2023 AZ Awards.
Few places in Mexico hold a constructive identity as strong as Guanajuato. Extensive historical research undertaken by the studio confirmed this, finding the region's character expressed not only in its architecture but also in its traditional kitchen utensils, its aqueducts, its legends and even its heroes. Pípila, the local figure who carried a large rock on his back to protect his regiment against bullets, remains an enduring emblem of the stone culture that defines the area.
Stone was therefore a natural choice, its selection made easier by a materials bank and capable labour nearby. From the outset, the studio encouraged a dialogue of respect between the artifice and its environment.
The complex is organised around a cruciform plan, divided into four quadrants by a cross of stone alleys. These paths define movement through the property, frame each moment and separate one quadrant from the next, with a distinct vocation assigned to each.
The lower right quadrant receives inhabitants upon arrival, holding an endemic garden that reinforces, protects and welcomes both living beings and humans. A second quadrant shelters the cars. Special care was taken to preserve the existing trees during construction so their shade could protect the vehicles from the sun, while a long, barely arched stone wall guards the entrance, withholds views into the house and emphasises the horizontal presence of the mountain in the background.
The third quadrant contains the one-bedroom house. Here, public and private spaces are separated by a single volume holding the bathrooms, dressing room and service area, a gesture that breaks with the open floor plan. The fourth quadrant is home to the office, the only visibly prominent vertical element on the property. Contrasting with the horizontality of the landscape and the rest of the complex, it flirts with the iconic volumes of the Santa Brígida mine in Mineral de Pozos.
This dispersion of space calls for a permanent pilgrimage between quadrants, forcing contact with the earth, the air and the mountain. Like an ancient monastery, the home frames the landscape while forming a natural part of it.
Such an approach reflects how HW Studio begins every project, with a deep study of the client, the place and the firm itself, informed by a meditation technique that facilitates the creation of spaces conveying serenity, tranquillity and silence in an increasingly noisy and violent world. Free of arbitrary and selfish responses, the work promotes an appreciation of what really matters in life. By eliminating the non-essential, the studio creates architecture that pauses the mind and introduces silence, where small glimpses of peace can be found.
