Can a Red House Reconcile Past and Present? | Casa Kancab by KAMA Taller de Arquitectura
- Revista Focus
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
PROJECT DATA:
PROJECT: Casa Kancab.
ARCHITECT: KAMA Taller de Arquitectura.
ARCHITECTS / DESIGN TEAM: Kathia García + Armando Aguilar.
LEAD ARCHITECT: Armando Aguilar.
COLLABORATOR: Chiro Tabby.
INTERIOR DESIGN: KAMA Taller de Arquitectura.
PHOTOGRAPHY: KAMA Taller de Arquitectura.
LOCATION: Downtown Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
DESIGN YEAR: 2021.
CONSTRUCTION / COMPLETION YEAR: 2022.
AREA: To be confirmed. Some sources register 80 m² of usable area; others, 180 m² built on a 230 m² lot.
TYPOLOGY: Single-family house / residential renovation.
MAIN MATERIALS: Chukum, concrete, wood, and stone.
There are houses that are renovated to erase the passage of time. The walls are smoothed, the floors are replaced, irregularities are corrected, and in the end, the project becomes so clean that it seems to have lost any trace of its previous life. But Casa Kancab, designed by KAMA Taller de Arquitectura in downtown Mérida, does exactly the opposite: instead of hiding its past, it turns it into a starting point.
The project was born as the renovation of a Yucatecan colonial construction, located in a city where domestic architecture has a deep relationship with the patio, mineral materials, shade, and memory. In that context, intervening in an existing house should not mean “updating” it until it becomes unrecognizable, but rather asking which parts of its history can still support a new way of inhabiting.
And there appears the first important gesture of Casa Kancab: to preserve. Not as nostalgia, but as a strategy.
Because this house does not seek to look old, nor does it intend to freeze itself in a heritage image. Its value lies in achieving a conversation between two times: the colonial construction that already existed and a contemporary vision that introduces light, color, texture, and new forms of use.
A renovation that did not want to start from scratch
From the entrance, Casa Kancab makes it clear that the intervention was not conceived as a total replacement. The vestibule preserves the original floor found in the house, an element that welcomes the user as a kind of first clue: here, the past was not eliminated; it was incorporated into the route.
That gesture may seem small, but in a domestic renovation it carries a lot of weight. Preserving an original floor does not only mean keeping a finish; it means accepting that the house already had a material biography before the new project. Each mark, each piece, and each variation in tone carries a memory that no new material could honestly invent.
Isn’t it curious? Many times, we want a renovation to look “like new,” when perhaps the most valuable thing is for it not to look entirely new.
Casa Kancab understands that. Its architecture does not try to compete with the history of the house, but to use it as a base to build a current experience. That is why, after the vestibule, the project leads toward a double-height central space illuminated by a circular skylight, where natural light becomes the protagonist.
And when light enters from above, the house begins to change rhythm.
Light as a second structure
In Mérida, light is not a minor detail. It can be intense, direct, and demanding. That is why working with it well involves more than opening windows: it means filtering it, guiding it, and allowing it to transform spaces without making them uninhabitable.
In Casa Kancab, the circular skylight illuminates the central space and takes advantage of the original dimensions of the house to create a more open atmosphere.
The double height allows the house to breathe, for air and light to gather at a meeting point, and for the renovation not to feel enclosed within its own historical structure.
The operation appears simple, but is powerful in experience. The house did not need to destroy its memory in order to become luminous. It was enough to find a way to open upward.
Here, light works almost like a second structure: it organizes the route, emphasizes verticality, reveals textures, and makes the neutral tones of the chukum change throughout the day.
And precisely chukum is another of the project’s key elements.
Chukum, organic forms, and a wall that did not want to be flat
One of the most recognizable elements of Casa Kancab is the mural of organic forms made with chukum, which extends across the main wall of the house. This gesture introduces movement, depth, and a more sensory reading of the space.
Chukum, a traditional material from the region, appears here not only as a finish, but as an expressive tool. Its neutral tone works as a base, but the organic forms break the rigidity of the wall and give it an almost sculptural presence. The wall stops behaving like a flat boundary and becomes a living surface, capable of accompanying the route and giving character to the interior.
This detail also helps the house avoid an overly literal reading of the colonial. Casa Kancab does not limit itself to restoring and repeating. It takes local materials, but uses them with a contemporary sensitivity.
And that combination is where the project finds its voice: it does not remain in tradition, but it also does not use it as simple scenery.
A linear house that opens toward the patio
The layout of Casa Kancab works linearly. The kitchen-dining area connects with the outdoor social area, creating continuity between interior and exterior. This sequence responds very well to a Yucatecan domestic logic: life does not happen only under a roof; it also extends to the patio, to shade, to water, and to air.
The patio incorporates a pool and a barbecue area, functioning as the social center of the house. It is not a decorative garden at the end of the route. It is the space where the house relaxes, where architecture stops being containment and becomes coexistence.
And this is important: in many old houses in downtown Mérida, the patio was a climatic, social, and domestic system. Casa Kancab recovers that logic and updates it. The pool introduces freshness; the barbecue area activates gathering; the connection with the kitchen and dining room allows the outdoor space not to feel separated from daily life.
The house is then understood as a sequence: entrance, memory, light, organic wall, kitchen, patio, water, and rest.
And at the end of that sequence appears the main bedroom.
Rest at the back of the house
The main bedroom is located at the rear of the property, connected to the patio with the pool and complemented by a terrace on the upper level. This decision builds a sense of refuge: to reach rest, one must first cross the social life of the house.
The bedroom does not appear as an isolated piece, but as the ending point of an experience. After the historic vestibule, the double height, the chukum wall, and the patio, the bedroom becomes a more private pause, accompanied by views and by a terrace that allows the house to be seen from another level.
That relationship between the intimate and the open is one of the project’s greatest achievements. Casa Kancab does not brutally separate social life and rest; it articulates them through a gradual transition. First, the house reveals itself, then it opens, and then it withdraws.
And in the middle of all this, color finishes building identity.
Kancab: red earth as character
The name “Kancab” comes from Maya and is associated with the idea of “red earth.” In the project, that reference appears in the red tones chosen to contrast with the neutral chukum finishes. Color does not function as an isolated ornament, but as a layer of visual depth and interior character.
Red earth is a powerful image in Yucatán. It speaks of soil, heat, dust, and origin. In Casa Kancab, that reference is translated into a palette that avoids absolute neutrality and gives the house a warmer, more rooted identity.
Because a house does not always need grand gestures to feel connected to its territory.
Sometimes it is enough to choose a material well, preserve a floor, open a skylight, or allow a color to recall the earth on which it is built.
Casa Kancab demonstrates that a renovation can be much more than an aesthetic update. It can be a way to reconcile different times: the colonial and the contemporary, the existing and the new, shade and light, chukum and red earth.
In downtown Mérida, this house does not try to erase its layers. It organizes them so they can continue telling a story.
Would you prefer a completely new house, or one that preserves the traces of what it once was?
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