Casa Tiny is, in some ways, exactly as it sounds – a small house – and yet this is a building with a spirit that belies its compact footprint.

A solid and secure concrete abode with room just enough for two, Casa Tiny is a very particular sort of retreat, providing guests with all that they need while challenging the excess comforts they are used to wanting. Singles and couples come here to escape the rat race and reconnect with nature in solitude – and after a few hours of doing this, it’s easy to see that Casa Tiny is so much more than a well-timed nod to the popular tiny house movement.

A stone’s throw from the lapping waves of Puerto Escondido on Mexico’s Oaxacan coast, Casa Tiny is about as unstereotypical a beach house as you could muster. You won’t find any weatherboard or Hamptons-esque white and blue hues, and there is an overwhelming lack of soft furnishings, because this beach house has been designed to take its guests back to basics.

As one of the first buildings architect Aranza de Ariño has constructed, Casa Tiny’s design was inspired by American author Henry David Thoreau’s 19th century novel, Walden, which follows Thoreau’s experience of living in a self-built cabin in the woods over a two year period. Just like Thoreau’s stint of self-sufficient solitude, de Ariño built Casa Tiny as a way to get back to the romantic ideal of simple living in natural surroundings.