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Rafael Prieto was looking for office space for his design practice in Mexico City when he stumbled upon an empty old mansion in the leafy Roma Norte neighborhood. He settled into the building and soon had an idea for one of the other empty rooms. “I discovered all these interesting publications when I was traveling for work,” says the designer. “I realized that there really wasn’t a good art bookstore in Mexico City.” He partnered with artist Jorge de la Garza in curating magazines, literature and art titles and, in 2012, Forest House born.
Today, the store is divided into two rooms and a perfumery has been installed on the ground floor. Inside, long tables and a modular wooden shelving system designed by Prieto and local industrial designer Jorge Diego Etienne are packed with independent magazines. You can find cult titles like Vestojan annual academic magazine on fashion and the biannual artistic magazine of Maurizio Cattelan Toilet paperas well as more traditional titles such as Fashion either stunned. The store’s focus has shifted from magazines and books to “something rarer and more specific that feels more like an investment.” Some of these publications you could only find in a museum,” says Prieto. It currently has a rare first edition of a monograph by the late artist Mike Kelley for visitors to admire, a tribute to portraitist Larry Stanton (1,330 pesos, approximately £61), a deck of tarot cards designed by surrealist artist Leonora Carrington ( about £33) and a history of the Morelia International Film Festival (about £20).
The building, which dates back to the early 20th century and is protected by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, still retains many of its original features: Juliet balconies overlooking the quiet street below, a tranquil courtyard garden, and a sunlit patio. Citing New York’s Dashwood Books, Berlin’s Motto bookstore, and Tokyo’s Tsutaya Books as inspiration, Prieto has cultivated an intimate interior. It has the relaxed feel of a living room, with potted succulents and ferns, casually placed wooden stools, and Jean Prouvé chairs. “I wanted this openness and this feeling of being in a universe of books,” he says.
A “chocolate wall” stores bars made by another of Prieto’s operations, a small chocolate company called Casa Bosques Chocolate, which he founded in 2011. The bars are made on-site in a “chocolate workshop” located in the back of the mansion. home using traditional cocoa beans (from $14).
Recent years have seen an influx of visitors to Mexico City and the Roma Norte neighborhood has become more lively. Prieto now hosts regular events: readings by artist and singer Devendra Banhart and former Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon, a screening of a documentary about the Lacandona jungle. Recently there was a cocktail party to celebrate the iconic gay magazine. Butt, which drew crowds from Mexico’s queer community. “I can’t tell any anecdote about that party,” laughs Prieto.
The space has continued to evolve: In 2021, Prieto added Pensión, a three-bedroom guesthouse above the bookstore. “I thought how wonderful it would be to stay home and get up early, have a coffee and read the books, maybe book an appointment at the chocolate workshop where you can taste the beans or have a cocoa infusion. ” These simple rooms (from $190 per night) are equipped with sculptural lights that Prieto designed with her boyfriend, artist Loup Sarion, plus custom tapestries and wallpaper made from photographs Prieto took of the Cy Twombly galleries at the Museum of Art of Philadelphia when they lay empty. He next plans to expand the Guesthouse and create a room by appointment so that visitors can see the rarest and most expensive books and a café on site, he says, so that “ people can delve deeper into our world.”
Casa Bosques, Córdoba 25, Roma Nte, Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico; casabosques.net; @casabosques