We have often wondered why the early 20th-century upper class did not appreciate the tree-lined boulevards of Cuauhtémoc and preferred to build their Art Nouveau villas in Juárez. A choice that, a few decades later, favored the spread of a certain experimental architecture in the neighborhood, created by Mexican architects and urban planners such as Luis Barragán, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, and Mario Pani. It was Mario Pani who designed Casa Pani, a private residence completed in 1962 and now converted into a guesthouse with six rooms by architect Miggi Hood, entrepreneur Marie Cazalaa, and Yola Jimenez, co-founder of Yola Mezcal. They are credited with saving this modernist masterpiece from demolition. Miggi has preserved the property’s quality as much as possible: the porthole windows, spiral stairs, and stone floors. What has been added was done according to Pani’s philosophy, honoring his preference for natural light, organic shapes, and material elements. The communal bathtub was conceived and sculpted by Miggi, as a tribute to sculptor Valentine Schlegel. The furnishings are by Vladimir Kagan, Paolo Buffa, Arne Jacobsen, and Eero Saarinen, while the local studio Estudio Atemporal designed a new adjoining building. Casa Pani is a balance between modernism and contemporary style, Mexico and the United States, white and color, straight angles and curves. In spring, a large jacaranda tree gently cradles its purple flowers in front of the house’s large windows. Every time we think of CDMX, it is the first image we see.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.