A Mexican Forest Home Built Around Its Trees

Architecture studio Dosorozco has designed a home that sits in the forest rather than cutting into it. Casa Sima covers 150 square metres, about 1,615 square feet, on a sloping site in the Sierra de Tapalpa, a mountain area in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Dezeen published its account of the project on 21 October 2026.

The studio avoided digging into the slope and did not remove any trees. Instead, the house follows the shape of a clearing that was already there. Its long, blocky volumes line up with the land's contours, so the building stretches along the ground rather than rising up through the trees.

The layout is made of two rectangular boxes that cross each other. The ground floor holds the living room, dining area and kitchen, with two stone walls on either side. The upper, central cube contains the two bedrooms.

The entrance is a raised timber wall, held up by a steel frame. Its surface has been blackened using a local technique that uses oil and heat to weatherproof the wood. Heat and oil darken the surface and help protect the timber from rain and damp.

Inside and out, Dosorozco kept to three materials: blackened timber, stonework and pale plaster. According to the studio's account, the palette echoes the forest around the house. The dark wood reads as the trunks and shadows of the trees, while the lighter plaster adds contrast.

Dosorozco's creative director is Guillermo R Orozco. No further details about the house's construction or cost have been released.

For anyone who has ever wondered what it looks like to build on a hillside without flattening it, Casa Sima offers one answer. The house works with the land's existing shape instead of reshaping it.