Renovating a historic home in Mérida can be an extraordinary project. Behind the façades of the Centro Histórico are houses with high ceilings, original pasta-tile floors, thick masonry walls, interior courtyards, and spaces that can be transformed into beautiful contemporary homes.
But renovating an older property in Mérida is very different from building a new house.
Before choosing finishes or designing a new kitchen, it is important to understand the building you have, the home you want to create, and the work required to connect the two.
For international homeowners, there is another important consideration: how will the project be managed, decisions made, and construction checked when you are not in Mérida?
At Centro Architects, we work with international homeowners on the design, renovation, construction, and ongoing maintenance of properties in Mérida. Based on that experience, these are some of the most important conversations to have before beginning a renovation.

Older houses rarely reveal everything during a real-estate showing or a quick walk-through.
Before developing the design, it is important to understand the condition of the roof, masonry walls, floors, structure, electrical installation, plumbing, drainage, and other existing systems.
​Mérida’s climate adds another layer. Heavy seasonal rain, intense sun, heat, humidity, and long periods of moisture can expose problems that may not be obvious when you first visit a property.
A careful assessment helps answer two important questions:
What should be preserved?
and
What needs to be repaired, replaced, or redesigned?

Original materials and architectural elements can give a historic Mérida home much of its character. The objective is not necessarily to replace everything old with something new, but to understand what is worth keeping and how new interventions can work with the existing house.
If you are still considering purchasing a property, having an architect or experienced local professional review it before assuming a particular renovation will be straightforward can prevent expensive surprises later.

“Renovating the house” can mean very different things depending on how you plan to use it.
Will Mérida be your full-time residence or a seasonal home?
Will you regularly host family and friends?
Do you want most of the house air-conditioned, or do you prefer spaces designed around natural ventilation?
How much storage do you need?
How important is low maintenance while you are away?
How should the house connect to the garden, terrace, or pool?
These questions can influence the design as much as the dimensions of the property.

Many historic homes in Mérida were designed for a different way of living. A successful renovation can preserve their architectural character while adapting them to contemporary expectations for kitchens, bathrooms, air conditioning, lighting, technology, privacy, outdoor living, and maintenance.
Defining these priorities early also helps the architect make better decisions when budget, preservation, and design objectives compete with one another.

Renovating in Mérida’s historic areas can involve requirements that do not apply to a typical new construction project.
Depending on the property’s location, status, and the proposed work, approvals or review may involve the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) as well as municipal authorities.
This does not mean that historic houses cannot be transformed. It means that the regulatory situation should be understood early rather than after the design has already been completed.

Permitting can affect what can be modified, how drawings need to be prepared, and when construction can begin.
Your architect should be able to explain the approval process that applies to your particular property and proposed scope of work.

One of the most common questions we receive is:
“How much does it cost per square meter to renovate a house in Mérida?”
It is understandable, but with historic renovations it can also be misleading.
Two houses of exactly the same size can require completely different levels of investment.
Structural work, deteriorated roofs, electrical and plumbing replacement, restoration of original elements, custom carpentry, pools, air conditioning, finishes, access to the property, and the overall level of intervention can significantly change the cost.
That is why a useful renovation budget should develop together with the project.

Early estimates help establish feasibility. As the design becomes more defined, drawings, specifications, and a clearer scope make it possible to produce more meaningful estimates and decide where the investment will have the greatest impact.
A detailed estimate also makes it easier to understand what is included, what is not, and how changes during construction may affect the final cost.
For an owner managing a project from another country, that clarity becomes especially important.

Many of our clients do not live in Mérida full time.
That makes communication and project organization an essential part of the renovation process.
Before construction begins, you should understand:

• Who is responsible for your project.
• How often you will receive progress updates.
• How photographs and site information will be shared.
• How estimates and changes will be approved.
• Which decisions require your involvement.
• When those decisions need to be made.
• How construction progress and pending items will be tracked.

Remote ownership does not mean giving up control of your project.
It means creating a system in which your local team can keep construction moving while you have enough information to understand what is happening and make important decisions at the right time.
​At Centro Architects, our work can extend from the initial assessment and architectural design through construction documents, estimates, permitting, scheduling, construction coordination, and progress reporting.
Having design and construction working together is particularly valuable in renovation, where existing conditions frequently require the team to respond to what is discovered during the work.

A house can look beautiful when construction is completed and still be difficult or expensive to live in.
Mérida’s climate makes practical design decisions especially important.
Shade, ventilation, waterproofing, drainage, air-conditioning strategy, equipment locations, water systems, exterior finishes, landscaping, and access for future maintenance all deserve consideration during design.
The question should not only be:
“How will this look?”
but also:
“How will this house perform five or ten years from now?”

Materials weather differently in Yucatán’s heat, humidity, rain, and sun. Mechanical and electrical equipment eventually requires service. Roofs, pools, gardens, water systems, and exterior finishes require maintenance.
Thinking about these issues during design can make the finished home much easier to own.

For homeowners who spend only part of the year in Mérida, the relationship with the property often continues long after the renovation is complete.
A home may need preventive maintenance, repairs, equipment servicing, waterproofing, painting, pool work, or someone who can investigate a problem while the owner is abroad.
This is one reason Centro Architects works not only in architecture and construction, but also in ongoing property maintenance.
The team that understands how a house was designed and built is often in a better position to help care for it afterward.
For an international homeowner, having a trusted local point of contact can be just as valuable after the project is completed as it was during construction.

The goal of renovating a historic Mérida home is not simply to make an old building look new.
The most interesting projects preserve what makes the property distinctive while carefully introducing the spaces, systems, comfort, and technology required for contemporary life.
That process begins with understanding the existing house, establishing clear priorities, defining a realistic scope and budget, and creating a reliable way to manage the project.

And when you are doing it from another country, choosing the right local team becomes one of the most important decisions of the project.
Considering buying or renovating a historic home in Mérida?
Centro Architects can help evaluate an existing property, explore renovation possibilities, develop the architectural project, estimate and coordinate construction, and continue caring for the property after the work is complete.

​The workers arrive early Monday morning atop a truck, all ten of them. They come from the pueblos. They appear to be so young, yet many are older than I think. It's hard for me to tell their ages. I am not of the same culture. These men are Maya. They have wives and children in the pueblos where they stay from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. The rest of the time they work, eat and sleep in the place that I will eventually call my home.

​For four months they have been digging out huge boulders and removing top soil so that the pool and the house extension can be built. The boulders they haul are huge, sometimes a full foot around. They are extremely heavy and yet these little tiny fellows, not weighing probably more than 100 pounds, are able to haul them out of the ground. They stack them by size and then will use them for the foundation along with cement. The trees that they removed were cut into movable pieces and the small branches they saved for fires on which they cook their daily meals. Nothing is wasted. All reusable stone is saved for the foundation. Topsoil is saved for when the gardens will be installed. A small outdoor tub is used for bathing and the water comes from a faucet that they have managed to connect to the cistern. I am amazed by their frugality and their resourcefulness.

The skills they have are learned from others, not some school teacher or textbook. The foundations that they build look like pieces of art. The stones beautifully assembled similar to a jigsaw puzzle and then cemented into place. Their eye for piecing together the walls is amazing. Their professionalism unquestionable.

I am awed by how gracious, caring and formal they are. If I walk on the property they immediately grab their shirts and want to put them on. The culture is one of modesty. I cover my eyes, say "No hay problema, hay calor". and walk through. I greet them always and on my way out thank each and everyone of the workers personally. I am so grateful to them. They give up so much of their lives just to make a meager living and support their families. Yet, they appear to be happy. They joke and laugh as they work. Theirs is a well oiled team. There are no fancy bulldozers or equipment. Just them, their shovels and picks. Pieces of wood are used to pry up and remove rocks. Wheel barrels are run back and forth piled high with stones and dirt. Ramps are made from pieces of wood left on the property. Leftover large plastic containers provide support for thin pieces of wood for a few benches. During their breaks they eat and rest on the floor. One reads a newspaper, others chat during their lunch hour and some sleep. Lunch is around one when the temperature rises to an unbearable level. Work is best done early in the day before the temperature becomes searing. There is no shade in the areas where they work outside. Some work inside, removing the plaster from the walls so the channels can be made for the electrical and plumbing.

I wish I spoke their language, I would love to know about their families. I hope they are happy at home, that their children and wives understand how difficult their lives are during their laborious week. I feel so distant from them and yet I adore them. How can such a simple and hard life be carried out with so much elegance and grace? Maybe I am romanticizing and yet they appear to be incredibly happy while they are doing such hard labor.

At some point in time they will move on to another job, another site. I don't want to mourn that day yet. Other workers will appear to do finishing work, things that take much longer. But these men who endeared themselves to me, will not fade from my memory. They are special.

​-Ann Marie Brown

Skylights are a great solution for bringing light into the house, especially for homes in Centro where there are narrow lots that don´t allow for windows towards the neighbors.  However, with Merida´s sun, you also get a lot of unwanted heat that gets amplified with the glass.  There is a solution for this that is simple and economical: the malla sombra.  This product is normally used for greenhouses, which blocks the sun at different percentages (up to 95%). They come in different colors (white, beige, black, etc.) and can be easily installed.  There are several advantages to this product; one is that even though it blocks the sun, it lets the light pass through so you can take advantage of Merida´s sunny weather without the heat.  Also, it´s made to work in the exterior so it resists the sun and weather conditions.  Another benefit is, if you have an air conditioner in the same room as a skylight, it makes the room cooler which improves its efficiency, saving you some money.

ABSTRACT
The complexity and technology used in current projects have lead to a specialization of activities that results in a fragmented approach to design and construction, to the point that the design leaves all of the problems related with construction in the contractor´s hands. Different authors have reported that issues related to quality and delays in construction projects are caused by design deficiencies. Furthermore, projects overruns coming from design depict the most significant budget increases.

The fragmentation between the construction project phases began to be addressed at the end of the 1970s when the Construction Industry Institute (CII), in the United States, conceived the concept of constructability to describe the way that building design facilitates the construction processes. Since then, this concept has been implemented in different countries with the purpose of improving productivity and quality in construction. The experience and knowledge about this concept has resulted in the establishment of a set of principles that drive its implementation.

However, locally, there is no indication of the awareness or application of this concept. Therefore, this research´s objective was to determine the extent that design and design-build firms in the city of Merida, Yucatan apply the principles of constructability in the design phase of building projects, as well as to identify the factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of these principles.

In order to achieve this objective, a study was conducted that included the design and application of an instrument to measure the frequency that the practices of constructability were applied among firms that design building projects in Merida. A sample including thirty design firms was taken, at which the managerial positions were primarily interviewed. Also, the opinions of ten building contractors were included in respect to the frequency that the designers apply these principles. These interviews were also used to identify the factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of constructability practices.

Based on the information provided by the interviewees, the average application for each constructability principle was determined, with which the overall level of application of constructability was ultimately obtained. The results show that even though local construction practitioners are unfamiliar with the constructability concept, a relatively high overall level of application was obtained: 67% according to designers and 66% according to contractors. Furthermore, based on the designers and contractors´ comments, 24 constructability barriers were obtained. The most relevant barriers in the local context were the lack of a culture of design and planning in the undertaking of construction projects and the great informality with which building projects are developed.