Casa Mérida breathes permanently, while providing the essential feeling of protection and privacy. To physically disconnect the house from the city, the social area is located at the end of the plot, which is the quietest area with less noise from the street. In front of the house, the large courtyard serves as a buffer from the city.
Mérida House by Ludwig Godefroy Architecture. Photograph by Rory Gardiner.
Mérida House by Ludwig Godefroy Architecture. Photograph by Rory Gardiner.
Mérida House by Ludwig Godefroy Architecture. Photograph by Rory Gardiner.
Description of project by Ludwig Godefroy Architecture
Mérida House is a single family house project located in the historic center of Mérida, a few blocks away from its main central square, in its colonial area. Mérida is the capital of Yucatán, but also the capital of the Mayan culture, Yucatán representing a large part of the mexican mayan territory.
In spite of the fact this civilisation disappeared long time before spanish people arrived, Mayan people and languages always survived and still exist today, which always made this region very unique and different than any other in México ; a sort of small country within the country, with its own way of thinking.
Another very important point is the fact that Mérida has a very peculiar warm weather all year long, with intense temperatures and a peak that can reach 40º celcius in May, as well as a very high level of humidity, specially during the rainy season from June until the end of September.
Through centuries, this weather led the architecture of the city to a recognizable traditional typology, a mix of history of its colonization with its Mexican tropical reality from Yucatán, which resulted in a singular tropicalized colonial style. This typology is basically based on natural crossed ventilation under high ceiling volumes, all connected together by a series of patios letting the air flow through the entire house, providing this way a natural cooling system.
For many centuries it has been the way of building, and it shaped a certain image of Mérida until AC ( air conditioning ) appeared, and made any kind of architecture possible around the old historic center, since the absolut need of crossed ventilation could now be balanced. Mérida is a city where life without AC is almost impossible, and where it became very usual to use it 24 hours a day. How can we step back from this intense use of AC Mérida is doing today? And what could be the possibilities architecture is offering us?
With this goal in mind and having a look at the past, came the following question: How is it possible to build architecture that reflects and considers the yucatán identity, to make this house belong to its territory ? In other words, how could this house be mayan?
Casa Mérida project is exploring the relation between contemporary and traditional architecture, both connected through a very simple use of vernacular references. When entering for the first time on site, something memorable was the unique proportion of the plot, which is a broken rectangle of 80 meters long X 8 meters wide, looking like a big lane. Here came the one and only idea of the project : to preserve this 80 meters perspective, as a straight line, crossing the entire plot from the entrance door until the ending point, where the swimming pool is located ; Inserting back the traditional air flow cooling concept as a starting point.
