Introduction

San Modesto House is a 135 m² residential model designed for narrow urban lots that still aspire to feel like a small retreat. Organized around a central patio and reflecting pool, the home stretches longitudinally, creating a sequence of calm spaces that enjoy natural light, cross-ventilation and framed views to vegetation. The project offers different façade variations, allowing each home to adapt its character while maintaining the same efficient and carefully planned interior layout.

Role

At FORMM we developed San Modesto House as a flexible, repeatable model that still feels bespoke. Our role covered concept, architectural design and visualization, ensuring that each façade variation preserves the same experiential quality: a discreet face to the street and an unexpectedly generous, resort-like interior world.

Highlights

Courtyard Living Spine:
The house is organized along a linear patio with a narrow pool that acts as the project’s central axis. Social areas open directly onto this space, allowing interior and exterior to merge and bringing water reflections and natural light deep into the home.

Façade Variations:
San Modesto House offers multiple front elevations based on the same volume: versions with lattice screens, stone walls, or smooth stucco planes. Each variation modulates privacy, shading and transparency differently, so the same model can adapt to different streets, orientations and client preferences without losing its core identity.

Compact Footprint, Generous Feeling:
Despite its 135 m² footprint, the project feels larger thanks to continuous views, tall ceilings and controlled openings. Circulations are minimized, prioritizing usable space in the living room, kitchen, bedrooms and terrace.

Warm Local Materials:
The material palette favors natural tones: stucco walls with a chukum-like texture, warm wood, stone and dark metal accents. These elements age gracefully in the Yucatán climate and give the house a calm, timeless atmosphere.

Landscape & Lighting:
Vegetation is strategically placed along perimeter walls and planters, softening boundaries and filtering views. Night lighting highlights plants, façades and the water surface, turning the patio into the main stage of the house after sunset.

Sustainability & Usability:
The linear layout encourages cross-ventilation and shaded outdoor living, reducing dependence on artificial cooling. The roof and technical areas are prepared to receive solar panels and rainwater systems, and the single-level scheme keeps the home practical and accessible for different stages of life.