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Arango Marbrisa by JOHN LAUTNER
Article by Coronare Modestus
 This 1973 icon of mid-century modern, organic architecture is located in Acapulco Mexico and boasts a floor space of 25,000.00 square feet. The house perches on a very steep site overlooking Acapulco Bay. The upper floor, serving as the main living and entertainment area, composes a large open terrace surrounded by a cantilevered moat/railing pool, wide and deep enough to allow for swimming, that seems to overflow into the ocean below, inspiring a feeling of infinite space. |  |  |
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 |  |  The curved, sloping concrete roof anchors into the hill at one end, then sweeps over the house and the driveway and returns to the hill at the opposite end. The roof rides low on the hill side and high on the Bay side, allowing an encompassing view of the sky and the ocean. The enclosed family room and bedrooms situated on the lower floor, facing the bay, provide elevated landscape with a continuous planter-railing along the edge of the decks. |
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 |  “When I first visited the site,” says Lautner, “I got the idea to build a large, open terrace so that all you had was the beauty of the Acapulco Bay and the sky and the mountains. You don’t feel you’re in a building at all. You’re out in space. With the beauty of nature.” |  |
 |  Just viewing the house inspires. The curved lines provide the house a fluid feel, like the water that runs along the edges of the terrace or the clouds that embrace it, yet the dominant impression is one of boldness. |  |
 |  |  My first thought upon seeing it was, “I want my life to be like that.” Bold and fluid. Calm and inspiring. It is a house of means above most and elevated physically above, while open and embracing. The building has a clear purpose, and every part of it works towards that end — without exception, without shame. |
 |  The Arango House is more than just an artistic cure for a feeling of aimlessness or of ordinary existence. It is at once both a relaxant and a stimulant — a work of art that not only compels relaxation of mind and spirit but also inspires to live with more passion and to pursue creatively with zeal. |  |
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