Some buildings make you stop simply because they look so different from everything around them. The Nautilus House in Naucalpan, Mexico, designed by Javier Senosiain, is certainly one of them. Built in 2007, it looks like a huge shell that has been placed into the landscape, but what interests me is that the shape is not just an unusual exterior. The whole house has been designed around the idea of living inside a natural form.

Inspired by the nautilus

Javier Senosiain is known for what he calls organic architecture, taking inspiration from forms found in nature rather than relying mainly on straight lines and conventional rooms. For the Nautilus House, the starting point was the spiral of the nautilus shell. The shape develops into the house itself, so the curved walls and spaces are not decoration added afterwards. They determine how you move through the building and how the different areas connect. I find that much more interesting than simply making a building that happens to look like an animal or a plant.

Living without straight lines

Inside, the house feels very different from an ordinary home. There are hardly any straight lines, and the rooms flow into each other rather than being divided into a series of conventional spaces. A curved staircase leads through the interior, while built in furniture follows the shape of the walls. There are also plants growing directly within the living spaces, adding to the feeling that the building is somewhere between a house and a landscape.

Light and colour

The stained glass is another important part of the house. Coloured pieces of glass bring light into the interior and create changing patterns across the curved surfaces. Against the whites and earth colours of the structure, these brighter areas give the rooms a very different atmosphere from what you might expect from the outside. It is a nice example of how natural forms, materials and light can work together rather than being treated as separate parts of the design.

A house that becomes the experience

What I like most about the Nautilus House is that the idea goes further than making an interesting looking building. The shape changes what it feels like to live there. You do not simply walk from one rectangular room into another, you follow the curves of the building and gradually discover the spaces around you. Senosiain took an idea from nature and followed it through the architecture, rather than simply using natural forms as decoration. The result is certainly unusual, but there is a clear thought behind it, and that is what makes the Nautilus House so memorable to me.