Architecture practice HW-Studio took cues from the steps and plazas found in traditional Spanish architecture to design this residence in central Mexico.
Located in Morelia, a historic town in the province of Michoacan, the houses staggers down its sloped site to create a "horizontal line that highlights the sky and the mountains in the background".  HW-Studio dubbed it "The House that Hides Behind the Hill," for its unique relationship to the landscape upon which it is located.

The house's shorter name Casa Ja is a contraction of "Janitzio", an island in the middle of Lake Pátzcuaro, near Morelia. The area is known for its pre-hispanic and colonial architecture, and informed HW-Studio.

"We designed this house with the practical solutions of a pre-hispanic town like Janitzio," the architects told Dezeen. "The house was designed in the most vernacular way, based on proven solutions of traditional architecture, the terraces and stairs that we saw in Janitzio gave us the solution to build the house in a sloping ground," they added.
The property slopes down from the street, giving the illusion from the public way that the 500 square-metre home is much smaller than it actually is. Building the home into the hillside also allowed HW-Studio to create an interior layout with different floor levels, without building a tall structure.

"The house is divided into three blocks placed on different levels connected by wide cover...