If ever there was a positive side effect of FOMO, Casa Nube is it. This airy, modern, three-part house in the hills overlooking Oaxaca is the sweetest possible outcome of the lingering case of envy suffered by its owners—who are also its architects. Enchanted by Oaxaca during their first visit in 2013, they asked several expat friends if they had any regrets about moving to the city. When the only regret mentioned was not coming down sooner, “It kind of planted the seed with us,” says Thomas van den Bout. “It just got under our skin.”

Tom and his partner, Brenda Nelson, returned to Oaxaca time and again and finally began the search for a site to build their own home. They loved Oaxaca and also wanted to slow the go-go-go pace of their careers as architects (the two are principals of New York’s NV Design Architecture) so that they could pursue other creative work.

After first considering the historic district of the city, they found the perfect spot at the breezy crest of a ridgeline in the Sierra Norte hills, with an expansive view of Oaxaca in the valley below. They bought the land from another architect, a now-neighbor who would become their contractor. (In Mexico, it’s common for architects to work as builders, too.)

They began to sketch. “We have at least a hundred different designs for this house,“ Tom says. “We have differing opinions, so we ended up with many variations, large and small, on the way to what we got.”

“What all those hundred schemes had in common,” Brenda says, “was the idea that we could—in this perfect climate and perfect setting—live outside as much as possible. And that’s what we have here. We open up the house in the morning, and spend all day into the night with everything flowing in and out.”

Dividing the house in three separate buildings proved a graceful way to address the 32' slope of the lot. The tall, narrow spaces between the 1-, 2-, and 3-story buildings serve as breezeways for the air moving up from the valley, and a place for open stairways to the upper levels. Gathered amiably around a central terrace and stunning zero-edge pool and unified by a steel and glass canopy overhead, the clutch of buildings looks almost like a small village square.

Simplicity in design was the goal; simplicity in construction made that easier. Thanks to Oaxaca’s constant and kind climate, bulky HVAC and heating systems were unnecessary. An 80,000-liter (21,100-gallon) cistern beneath the living room collects and treats rainwater during the October–April rainy season, providing water for the household all year round. A solar water heater eliminates the need for a boiler, and an independent septic system means that grey water can be siphoned off for use in the gardens.

Casa Nube was completed in the summer of 2020, 18 months after the couple began camping out in the unfinished house. When thinking about what kind of client they consider themselves, they laugh. “We were the most undisciplined clients we’ve ever had,” Tom says. “We were constantly changing our minds. We infuriated our poor architects. We would totally fire us.”

The couple has just broken ground on their next project: a house on the lot down the slope from Casa Nube for Tom’s parents—more clients that will surely be granted lots of leeway.

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: NV Design Architecture / @nvdesignarchitecture

Builder/General Contractor: Latitude 17°, Javier Sibaja Salazar

Interior Design: NV Design Architecture

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A Pair of New York Architects Build the Home of Their Dreams in Oaxaca