Save this story Save Story Save this story When the Mexico City -based writer and curator Su Wu started working on her new design book, a theme began to emerge: She kept noticing the presence of pre-Hispanic architectural and design traditions in modern Mexican interiors.
It was from this realization that Mesoamerican Modern: Ancient Ideas in Contemporary Mexican Homes was born. The book features 16 homes across Mexico—those of artists, architects, designers, and more—all shot by photographer Luis Garvan .
Wrought iron doors designed by Carla Fernández.
“When I began this project, I thought that we would be documenting a history, like the aura surrounding the artifacts in a museum, the apparitions of the past,” Wu writes in the book’s introduction. “Instead, what I’ve found is the vibrant, living presence of Indigenous ideas in Mexico.”
“In the guest bedroom, pink silk curtains dyed by Fernández cast a glow in the room. The bedspread is from her personal collection of Mesoamerican textiles, made of undyed wool in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.” —Su Wu
One space that exemplifies those ideas is Casa Flora, the colorful brutalist Mérida home and studio of the Mexican fashion designer Carla Fernández . As a designer, Fernández seeks to preserve the textile traditions of Indigenous and Mestizo communities through collaborations with artisans, bringing ancient practices to a contemporary audience. Fittingly, the home is full of Mesoamerican art and textiles.
Fernández led the renovation of the house, which dates back more than a century and now hosts workshops for Taller Flora, her design lab, which focuses on traditional Indigenous clothing techniques. (You can also stay in the home; the designer lists it for stays on Airbnb .)
Fernández’s husband, the artist Pedro Reyes, created several elements of the space, including a concrete outdoor shower, as well as some of the tiles throughout the space. His sculptures—including a prototype of Mitla Sillas, chairs inspired by the pyramids of the Mitla archaeological site in Oaxaca—are found throughout the home.
The outdoor shower designed by Pedro Reyes.
Photo: Luis Garvan Reflecting on Fernández’s home, Wu tells Vogue: “I was very moved when writing the book with the idea of the ‘void’ in Mesoamerican architecture, and how so many architects, going back to the writings of Teodoro González de León, described the patio as a central, defining feature of the Mesoamerican home, a space that is at once enclosed and open to the elements. And in Carla’s home, I think there are many moments that exemplify this idea of the boundary between interior and exterior being not a physical one, but rather a marker of movement across psychological states.”
“A latticed window, known in Mexico as a celosia , is a central part of Mesoamerican architecture, used for cross-ventilation and to create a permeable sense of separation and shadow.” —Su Wu
Photo: Luis Garvan Oversize keys, a sculpture by Reyes.
Prototypes of Reyes’s Mitla Sillas chairs.
For Wu, Casa Flora is also a prime example of an idea that chef Elena Reygadas wrote about in her foreword to the book, “which is that handmade things are meant to be lived with no matter how precious, or especially if precious.”
Photo: Luis Garvan “An equipale chair made of bent wood by the Wixárika people in Nayarit sits in front of a backstrap-loom tapestry of the Torre Latinoamericana, the iconic skyscraper in Mexico City designed by architect Augusto H. Álvarez. Made by artisans from San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas, the tapestry echoes a collection of dresses from Carla Fernández that featured historic buildings in Mexico City.” —Su Wu
Photo: Luis Garvan All images © Luis Garvan Casa Flora, Mérida, Yucatán (pages 244-263). Mesoamerican Modern: Ancient Ideas in Contemporary Mexican Homes by Su Wu. Published by Phaidon Press.
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Source: Lifestyle
