— GUIDE · CAREYES ARCHITECTURE · PALAPAS & PERGOLAS
The Casa Papelillo Guides
Updated October 2026 · 6 min read · By Casa Papelillo
Careyes architecture is one of the most recognisable house styles on Mexico’s Pacific coast: palapa roofs, pergola-shaded terraces, saturated colour and rooms that open straight onto the sea. This guide explains where it came from, what every Careyes house shares, and how Casa Papelillo carries it on.
1968
The year Gian Franco Brignone founded Careyes
Palapa
The hand-thatched palm roof at the heart of the style
180°
Of Pacific from Casa Papelillo, with no other house in view
Careyes architecture is the house style that grew up on the cliffs of Careyes, on Mexico’s Costalegre coast, from 1968. It pairs the palapa, a hand-thatched palm roof, with hand-finished stucco, saturated colour and rooms that open straight onto the sea. Its guiding rule: straight lines do not exist in nature.
The houses read as part of the coast rather than objects placed on it. Walls curve, roofs rise like sails, and the line between inside and outside is left deliberately vague. The Pacific is the view, the light and, from most terraces, the soundtrack.
Careyes was founded in 1968 by Gian Franco Brignone, an Italian banker who imagined a coastal retreat for friends who loved art and nature. He worked with Guadalajara architect Marco Aldaco, who drew on the palapa, organic materials and the colour of Luis Barragán, and later with Diego Villaseñor and others.
What they built became the template: palapa-roofed villas, the clifftop “castles” such as Sol de Oriente, the brightly coloured Casitas de las Flores, and the Copa del Sol, a monumental concrete art installation on the Careyes coast. A second generation of architects has carried the language forward since.
Six features recur in almost every Careyes house, from the founding villas to the newest builds.
| Feature | What it is | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| The palapa | A roof of hand-thatched palm on a timber frame | Shade, airflow and a local craft tradition |
| Pergolas and terraces | Timber pergolas shading balconies and outdoor rooms | Living happens outside; the pergola filters the sun without closing the view |
| Water facing water | Infinity pools that run to the cliff edge | The pool’s edge disappears into the Pacific |
| Open rooms | Living spaces, even bathtubs, under the sky | The climate allows it, and the sea is the point |
| Saturated colour, no straight lines | Ochre, indigo, terracotta; curved walls and arches | Barragán’s colour, and the founding rule that the house follows the land |
| Hand-made finishes | Polished stucco, local stone | Built by local artisans, not shipped in |
Alex Pössenbacher is a Mexico City-born architect who has designed houses in Careyes for more than two decades, working there with Lorena Pössenbacher; Careyes lists them as its resident architects. Architectural Digest named him to its AD100 in 2010. His houses take the Careyes language of palapas, arches and colour and give it a quieter, more contemporary hand.
One Careyes listing summed up his approach as arches that “frame the ocean like canvases” and rooms that “refuse to decide whether they are indoors or out”.
Yes. Casa Papelillo is a classic Careyes house, designed by Alex Pössenbacher with interiors by Amathea. A great thatched palapa rises over the living spaces; every balcony has its own pergola; an infinity pool runs to the cliff edge; and the Sun Suite has an outdoor bathtub open to the sky. Every room, and every angle, faces the water.
That orientation is the whole design. The house is turned toward an uninterrupted 180-degree view of the Pacific over Chamela Bay, with no other house in sight, 20 metres from the water and reached by a private cliff staircase. From the pergola-shaded balconies, guests watch humpback whales in the bay from November to February. The villa stands ten minutes north of Careyes, on the edge of the UNESCO Chamela–Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve: just outside Careyes on the map, part of it in architecture, community and calendar.
Stay in a Careyes house: Casa Papelillo sleeps 12, fully staffed, on Chamela Bay.
The best way to understand Careyes architecture is to stay in it. From Casa Papelillo, the Copa del Sol, the polo fields and the Careyes coastline are a ten-minute drive, and you come home to a house built in the same language. Our guides to getting to Careyes and whale watching cover the rest, or see the villa.
Gian Franco Brignone, an Italian banker, in 1968.
A roof of hand-thatched palm on a timber frame, traditional on Mexico’s Pacific coast and the signature of Careyes houses.
Marco Aldaco and Diego Villaseñor in the founding years, with a later generation including Alex Pössenbacher.
A palapa roof, pergola-shaded terraces, an infinity pool at the cliff edge, rooms open to the air and every view turned to the sea.
Yes. Casa Papelillo is a Pössenbacher-designed, fully staffed oceanfront villa for 12, ten minutes from Careyes, rented whole.
Where to stay for Ondalinda
Festival dates, venues, drivers and where groups stay in November.
Whale watching in Costalegre
Humpback season, boat trips and the rules, November to February.
