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MEL Lecture Night

2/4/2022

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A couple weeks ago I had the honor of speaking to a group of Merida residents about the most common maintenance issues I see in my experience remodeling homes in Merida’s Centro. This is something I´ve wanted to do for a long time.  Many thanks to my amazing team and clients for making this possible, and to the Merida English Library for the opportunity.
I was so happy and amazed about all the people who came out.  The day before, we had anticipated that many would not be able to, so we made a video with all the information that was covered in the talk. You can find it here.
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They Are Special

10/19/2016

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A client recently sent us this beautiful reflection on her experience with the workers who are building her home in Centro.  It captures a special sentiment that I think others who find themselves renovating their home in Merida can relate to.  Thanks for articulating this so nicely, Ann Marie!
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​It's time for a leisurely stroll on this beautiful night in Merida. The full moon lights up the the white trim on the houses and quiet finally settles into this bustling city we call home. The street lights shine dimly along the uneven sidewalks as we head towards the Santiago market. The ice cream shop is open and children play on the swings and slides. Families gather in the park to enjoy the evening coolness. Elderly women and men sit outside the front doors of their homes with chairs facing each other. They chat and enjoy the cool breeze along with greeting us and other neighbors. Some lounge in their living rooms, you can hear the sound of a television coming through the open windows. We are headed to view our future home at night. We have not looked in on the house that we are building during the evening. This will be a first. We will not enter, but enjoy viewing it from across the street. 

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They are asleep. A dim light shines toward the back of the house. We see brightly colored hammocks swaying in the breeze that flows from the front of the house all the way to the back. This is their home, not yet ours.

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Are Your Skylights Overheating Your House?

1/23/2015

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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.


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Alumni Lecture Night

9/17/2013

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Fernando had the honor of speaking at the 20th Anniversary alumni lecture night at Auburn´s Rural Studio, a design-build program that gives architecture students a more hands-on experience while assisting an underserved population in Alabama's Black Belt region.  It was an eventful weekend of touring the new projects and connecting with familiar faces.  Lecture night was a blast and we wanted to share it with you here:

"Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul." -Sambo Mockbee
About 10 years ago I was starting school of architecture in Mérida.  And for three years I was part of a church group that went on mission trips into little communities outside of Merida.  During one of those trips I had an experience that changed my life... 

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Inverter and Econavi Air Conditioner Technology

6/4/2013

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If you live in Mérida, you have to know about this:
Everybody who lives in Mérida knows how hot it gets here and how often we have to leave the air conditioner on, sometimes for long periods of time, and if you live here you also know that every two months the bill of CFE (Comision Federal de Electricidad) will be higher than the heat it self.
In Studio Abreu we want to share the latest technology available to save you money, improve the cooling of your house and help the environment in the process. That´s why we did some research and found these two videos that have a very nice explanation of how this new technology works...

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Constructability

5/14/2013

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Here is the abstract of a research project I conducted in 2011 while earning a Master of Construction Management at the School of Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatán.  I was interested in the concept of constructability (the integration of construction knowledge into the design and planning phases of a project to achieve the project objectives in the best possible time, accuracy, and price) and the extent that design and design-build firms in the city of Merida, Yucatan apply these principles in the design phase of building projects, and what factors promote or inhibit the implementation of these principles.  This is what I found...

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    Author

    Architect Fernando Abreu heads the design-build firm Studio Abreu.  Here he will offer informative tips for enhancing homes in the Yucatan.

    Fernando holds a Bachelor in Architecture and Masters in Construction Management. 

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