Desig House: International Interiors: Mad about Mexico

The modern houses of Mexico fuse artisanal craftmanship, antiques with a contemporary attitude. Here Annie Kelly, author of new book Casa Mexico: At Home in Merida and the Yucatan, talks us through a new breed of artists, designers, sculptors and architects building a colourful, bohemian homes in the regions of Merida and the Yucatan.

If you could travel in Mexico back in time five hundred years, the town of Mérida - then known by its Mayan name of T'ho - would already be stretched out on the low, flat Yucatán plain. Today, its busy streets look like a typical cheerful and colorful Mexican metropolis, but this small city - considered to be one of the oldest continually occupied settlements in the Americas - also has an otherworldly character, and, thanks to the Mayans, an even richer cultural heritage than most other towns dating from this period.

Colonized over 470 years ago by the Spanish adventurer Francisco de Montejo, today Mérida has a historic center that is one of the largest in Mexico. To solidify Spanish control of the city, all the surrounding pyramids were torn down, and their huge stone blocks were used as the foundation for what is today the oldest cathedral on the North American continent - the Cathedral of San Ildefonso, which was finished in 1598. This somewhat
weather-beaten and venerable edifice is found on the main plaza next to several other historic buildings, including the Casa de Montejo of 1549, the grand former home of de Montejo, who is also considered the conqueror of the entire Yucatán Peninsula. Many of Mérida's original arched town gates can be seen in the earliest parts of the city. Mérida is still the cultural and financial capital of the region, and for a brief period in the late nineteenth century, thanks to the production of sisal, it was one of the richest towns in Mexico. As a result, a treasure trove of large-scale houses remains, many with original architectural features dating from a hundred years ago or more.

Today, a new breed of Yucatecan is moving into many of the buildings, renovating and restoring them to create full-time or even second or third homes. Hailing from Mexico City, Europe, Los Angeles, and New York, this rapidly growing community of artists, sculptors, designers, and architects is inspired by the skill and craftsmanship of the local Mayans as well as their desire to build a more adventurous and colorful life here
on the Yucatán Peninsula.

Residential Mérida reveals itself slowly to the visitor once you penetrate its defenses. The town is full of surprises. Indoor proportions are often huge, with twenty-foot-high ceilings and doors that open to reveal enfilades of tiled room after room. Metal hooks are built into almost every wall, spaced perfectly for hanging hammocks; these make bedrooms very informal and are comfortable to sleep in during hot evenings.

About a twenty-mile-drive inland from the sea, Mérida is relatively protected from the annual hurricanes that sweep through the Caribbean. As a precaution, its houses are mostly compact one-story buildings, with gardens defined and sheltered within inner high-walled private courtyards. Outdoor life is either lived inside these family compounds or more publicly in the numerous town squares. From the buzzing markets at Mercado Lucas de Gálvez and dancers performing the Yucatecan jarana in the Parque Santa Lucía to the vaquería performed by the Ballet Folklorico de Mérida in front of the Municipal Palace, Mérida is a town full of color and movement.

We fell in love with the Yucatán over twenty years ago when we toured the nearby iconic pre-Columbian pyramids Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Today, the whole region has grown into a fashionable and popular destination, constantly featured in a wide variety of travel and __design articles in newspapers and magazines all over the world. We found it most expeditious to begin the photography for this book in Mérida, and then use the town as a base to travel around the rest of the Yucatán to explore the contemporary evolution of Mexican interior __design and exterior decoration, which, thanks to skilled local craftsmen and artisans, are ever-changing, always joyful, and deeply inspirational.

Introduction from Casa Mexico: At Home in Merida and the Yucatan by Annie Kelly and photographed by Tim Street-Porter (Rizzoli, £45).