This “Sea Snail” Home Is Built From Thousands of Tiny Fossils

Lanza Atelier salvages stone excavated from a building site to create a different kind of beach house in Cancún.

Welcome to Beach Week, our annual celebration of the best place on Earth.

When a hurricane slammed into Cancún, Mexico, last year, José Sacre’s solar-powered, stone-and-concrete home kept glowing long after the sun set and the power went out. “You would not imagine this big rock in the middle of the compound glowing with light, when everyone had no electricity,” says José. “It was like the rock stood against nature—it’s so natural that it keeps living.”