Casa Etérea: The mirrored hideaway of central Mexico evokes reverence for nature

The mirror-clad Casa Etérea, or ethereal house, is conceived as an intimate, off-grid hideaway that lives up to its name through the rugged slopes of Palao Huérfano, an extinct volcano that mysteriously disappears beyond the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. The project, part building and part art installation, is the brainchild of Mexican-Singaporean writer and designer Prashant Ashoka, whose aim is to create a "nature theater" where guests can fully experience the mountain. Inside the house, floor-to-ceiling windows blur the boundaries between the interior and exterior, while on the outside, the mirrored volume blurs the distinction between nature and man-made, distorting the landscape in the ever-changing mirage-like reflections, with the aim of evoking Ashoka's words "a deep sense of awe for the wild."