This Singaporean moved to Mexico and built a breathtaking ‘Mirror House’ that's gone viral on social media

I heard so many good things about this place, and each and every one of them turned out to be true. It’s bursting with creativity, there are lots of young creative minds connected to the local art scene, and culturally Mexico is incredibly interesting. There’s a type of entrepreneurship in a creative setting that you won’t find in Singapore.

I had never been to Mexico City before so you could call my move a bit of a leap, but I really needed a change of scenery. I was looking to do a creative project, and work for myself, but I didn’t see this come to fruition in Singapore the way I wanted to. Just the topography in Singapore alone would have never allowed me to build something like Casa Etérea. Mexico is very varied with a lot more diverse climates and ecosystems to readily choose from.

The thing is, I didn’t know I was eventually going to build a house when I came here. I wasn’t necessarily looking to design a building, I wanted to build an experience. This experience of being in nature, being immersed by it, was best envisioned as a property someone could stay in. Now I’m not a classically trained architect but I do have an eye for aesthetics and I’m a documentary photographer. My forte is shooting portraits, including of ethnic communities like in Siberia. The indigenous people there live very close to nature, to the land.

The mirror came about because I wanted to create a sense of awe for the visitor. The house is very striking visually with large, mirrored panels that reflect the landscape and invite viewers to lose themselves in the surrounding nature, see themselves in it and question their role in the preservation of our ecosystem. In that mirrored façade you witness nature go by; it’s a physical passage of time. The idea is to have the viewer contemplate their role within nature.

The movement, the term, was coined by legendary Mexican architect Luis Barragan and his close collaborator Mathias Goeritz. It’s about architecture that moves you, that inspires you to think beyond the realms of your current imagination, and that’s kind of the idea behind Casa Etérea too.

What’s impressive is that in Casa Etérea you’re able to be on a literal mountainside. It was very difficult to build on sloped terrain but we made it work. This allows you to really be in the mountains, in a location most don’t get to see this up-close. Then at night, when the stars shine bright, it’s really something else.

Personally, I love the mountains more than the ocean because of the scale of the landscape. On this plot of land, the house is surrounded by cliffs that add so much dimensionality. That also puts the project into perspective; a small house surrounded by large cliffs that sort of dwarfs as well as secludes the house. In San Miguel de Allende it’s a semi-desert but when the rain comes it turns vibrantly green. In the summer months, it just erupts into greenery. It even makes me think of Hawaii.

It’s the most culturally diverse country in the world. It’s ancient, the cradle of civilization. Apart from its incredible arts and culinary scene, it has so much to offer in terms of nature. It basically has everything: snowcaps, mountains, forest to desert, lush river lands. San Miguel de Allende is one of the most beautiful small towns I have ever visited in the world. It’s been named “best city in the world” numerous times and it’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a really cool place, very friendly, and it attracts a lot of artists from all around the world due to its strong, energetic and fun local Mexican art scene.

Be very clear on your creative vision and thoroughly understand where you come from and what your story is. That’s most important when you embark on a creative project or start a business. If you can clearly define where you’re going and who you are, it will help synthesize the best version of your ideas.

Eat! (Laughs) I eat a lot. All the hawker food I can muster.

Prashant Ashoka is now in the midst of building a second house, a glass one, with his architect on the same plot of land as Casa Etérea.