This 25,000 square foot home was commissioned in 1970 by Jeronimo Arango, a wealthy businessman and co-founder of the Aurrerá supermarket chain. The notes from the architects’ first meeting with the client list a few standard requirements, such as a master suite, children’s bedrooms, an open floorplan, and expansive views of Acapulco Bay.

Also known as the Casa Marbrisa, or “Sea Breeze House” the dramatic concrete curves of this two-tiered home take the notion of architectural growth to an otherworldly level. Structural engineer T.Y. Lin, who had previously worked with Lautner on several designs including the Reiner Residence, was a pioneer of pre-stressed concrete and assisted in realizing this enormous structure. For this design, Lautner combined horizontal distribution, vertical extension, and multiplying volumes to create a distinct structure that truly hovers between Organic and Modern. Built partly on and directly in the hillside in the Southwest region of Mexico, the Arango House, much like the Sheats-Goldstein Residence, hugs the landscape before radically protruding into space. In more ways than one, the geometric concrete slabs of the Sheats-Goldstein Residence can be perceived as a trial for the enormous serpentine forms of the Arango House

Perched on a hilltop site, with uninterrupted views across the whole of Acapulco Bay, a large open terrace surmounts the main living quarters with spectacular views of the beach and bay, encircled by a “sky moat” which snakes around its edge; the terrace is itself topped by a huge, sweeping semi-circular angled awning made of cast, reinforced concrete.

The design is renowned for its biomorphic and curvy shapes, which feel like they were meant for an era that we haven’t arrived at quite yet. This is all the more extraordinary given that Lautner’s team built this entirely by hand — photographs of the house under construction show a complex network of wood scaffolding, with men working and not one crane in sight.