Casa Caracol: Snail Shell Concrete and Curved Circulation in Cancun

“Casa Caracol”—Spanish for “Sea Snail House”—by Lanza Atelier takes an introspective architectural approach in Cancún. Located in the upscale Puerto Cancún, the three-story home uses crushed sea-snail shells as aggregate in its concrete floors and staircases. Built of local limestone and this specialized concrete, the residence addresses two key challenges: privacy amid surrounding construction and opening inward toward the Caribbean Sea.

With multi-storey buildings encroaching on the plot, Lanza Atelier’s design intentionally turns inward, using a curved circulation core at the home’s rear to shield the living areas. This sculptural arc—mirroring the shell aggregate—is repeated on every level, enclosing stairs and service spaces behind a concave wall. In contrast, front-facing living rooms and bedrooms are organized around voids and patios, with naked stone and shell-concrete exposed to accentuate texture and connection to the landscape.

The central space is a double-height living and dining area that extends toward the sea. A terracotta-tiled balcony offers a shaded outdoor retreat. A blackened-wood dining table, set under a soaring ceiling, anchors festivities—an element enhanced by a charred column created using the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique. Above, a rooftop swimming pool, reached via shell-concrete steps, floats lightly, mirroring the home’s philosophical balance between heaviness and levity.

Design and Spatial Strategy

With minimal openings on the south due to neighboring buildings, Lanza Atelier reserved this facade for circulation. The resulting curved core acts as a spine, elegantly linking all levels and shielding private spaces. This arc recurs in plan and elevation, invisibly organizing the home’s program and creating spatial depth.

At the heart, voids and patios puncture the mass, inviting light, air, and views. Materials—limestone, shell concrete, terracotta, stainless steel—are celebrated in juxtaposition, with red tiles in the kitchen offering a bold accent that counters the neutral tones and polished metal.

Materials and Structural Expression

Crushed sea-snail shells in the floor and staircase concrete create a tactile softness while referencing the client’s ocean connection. The limestone, locally sourced, grounds the house in place. The Shou Sugi Ban wood and terracotta provide tactile variety and temperature control, while stainless steel and red tiles add modern contrast.

Windows use circular and semi-circular shapes, reinforcing the shell motif. The rooftop pool—entered via shell-concrete steps—adds an architectural flourish, completing the vertical circulation journey from ground to sky.

Architectural Analysis

The design logic rests on responding to context: dense construction requires an inward focus, while the sea demands visual connection. The curved circulation spine solves both: it buffers private space and channels paths through the structure. Its repetition across floors makes circulation legible and sculptural.

Materially, the crushed shell concrete embeds memory and place into structural elements. Limestone roots the architecture in regional geology. The Shou Sugi Ban and terracotta add texture, warmth, and cultural reference. The interplay between heavy shell concrete and lightweight volumes like the pool and balcony creates a rhythm of hiding and revealing.

Project Importance

Casa Caracol teaches architects how narrative can be embedded in material and form. The house is not only functional—it is autobiographical, reflecting the owner’s connection to the sea through literal inclusions of marine matter. This duality—privacy and openness—provides a sensitive model for dense coastal sites. Moreover, it advances housing typologies using local material language and sculptural circulation as identity-defining features.

In an era when environments are fast changing, this project shows that architectural integrity need not rely on monumentality, but can lie in authenticity, local texture, and introspective spatial choreography.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

Casa Caracol expresses introspection and place through its curved core and shell‑enriched concrete, crafting architecture that feels both rooted and reflective. However, one might ask whether the introspective focus deprives the home of potential views on the busy south axis. Still, the strategic opening toward the sea preserves connection without compromising privacy. Overall, the project compellingly balances narrative materiality and spatial elegance, offering a nuanced approach to coastal dwelling design.

Conclusion

Casa Caracol stands as a poetic lesson in architecture’s power to translate client narrative, context, and site into built form. Its shell-integrated floors, wrought circulation, and balancing of privacy and panorama form more than a house—they create a journey that moves from the groundedness of limestone and shell to the open air of terraces and sea views.

For architects, the house is a reminder that subtlety and site are compelling generators of architectural meaning. In a world where coastal development often replaces context with spectacle, Casa Caracol shows how introspective design, grounded in memory and material, can create living spaces of depth and humanity.

Explore the Latest Architecture Exhibitions & Conferences

ArchUp offers daily updates on top global architectural exhibitions, design conferences, and professional art and design forums.
Follow key architecture competitions, check official results, and stay informed through the latest architectural news worldwide.
ArchUp is your encyclopedic hub for discovering events and design-driven opportunities across the globe.

Brought to you by the ArchUp Editorial Team

Inspiration starts here. Dive deeper into Architecture, Interior Design, Research, Cities, Design, and cutting-edge Projects on ArchUp.