Casa Murguia rental villa - 68000 Oaxaca de Juárez

The land the ranch is situated on had laid fallow for over 50 years. Mary Jane placed the guest lodge with views to the west and the imposing rock escarpment. From the kitchen & dining terrace, guests look east to immerse in the mature nopal and organ cacti. She was careful to preserve the Tepeguaje Conzatti trees, a rare native acacia. When asks about the landscaping, “It was reductive,” she states, “all about what to preserve and little about what to add.”

Adobe brick construction is not only ecologically sustainable but thermal and seismically friendly. 1 part aged manure from the ranch horses was added to 2 parts lime-rich local soil to make a super strong brick that was dried for several weeks in the winter sun. The 30 cm. thick bricks keep the guest lodge a consistently comfortable temperature.

Old, used roof tiles were laid atop hand-hewn pine beams culled from dense forests in the Sierra Juarez that needed light and space to thrive.