From the top, Casa de los Milagros (House of Miracles) is all earth-colored mosaic glass curves and unexpectedly-shaped windows, the kind of place one might expect to find a caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland smoking a pipe. The varying heights of the convex slopes that make up the roof bring to mind a giant sea creature in motion. Looking at it from ground level, smooth, earth-colored concrete seems to support the top half like a huge stem of a mushroom. Finally, the curved base of the house gives it the appearance of a floating, organic creation. Indeed, the house is a kind of Rorschach test: like clouds or abstract art, the interpretation of its unique shape is in the eye of the beholder. According to owner Rosalinda Ulloa, it’s been referred to by different people as a mushroom, an octopus, a bat cave, a flower, and even a pie-topping meringue.
Photographer Naser Nader Ibrahim recently photographed the fanciful home designed by the renowned architect Danilo Veras Godoy in conjunction with the owner and her young children, one of several nestled in the cloud forest on the outskirts of Xalapa, Veracruz. Baptized Casa de los Milagros (House of Miracles) because Ulloa considered it a miracle that a newly-single mother of two was able to build a house at all given her modest budget, it was built in stages beginning in 1995 and completed in 2002 (additions were made without the original architect in 2006).
