Casa N I D O — A Courtyard House Tuned to Breeze and Shade in Yucatán
Casa N I D O sits in Mérida, Mexico, as a house shaped by climate and family rituals. Designed by Arkham Projects in 2024, the dwelling turns a quiet face to the street and opens wide to a planted courtyard and pool. Across two levels, the plan balances privacy with easy gathering, drawing steady light from the north and breeze from the east for daily comfort.
Late sun grazes a pale wall while trees catch the wind. Past the drive, the house pulls you inward toward a garden where water lines the edge and air feels cooler.
This is a house in northern Mérida by Arkham Projects, arranged for family life and Yucatán’s heat. The plan reads as a protective shell with a generous heart, prioritizing orientation, shade, and cross-breeze over surface drama.
Orient And Shelter
Street side, a solid southern facade limits solar gain and screens daily routines from view. Openings concentrate to the north and east, where living and dining rooms extend toward the garden and draw steady, glare-free light. Deep overhangs and a slatted canopy temper high sun at the threshold, so doors can slide open without turning the room into an oven. Privacy holds at the street; life flows inside.
Courtyard As Climate Engine
At the center, a patio ties rooms to the pool and landscape. The double-height living area fronts this court, encouraging air to move vertically while the water body cools the immediate air mass through evaporation. A long, linear pool edges a planted wall where vines spill from above; evening lights graze the stone and set a calm tone. It’s a daily climate tool, not just decoration.
Daily Rooms, Flexible
Family activities pivot around the open living-dining volume, which can expand to the terrace for gatherings or contract to a quiet lounge. A master suite and family room handle day-to-day rhythms—doors close, noise settles, and the court still anchors the plan. Secondary bedrooms line the upper level for visiting relatives, looking down to the patio for an easy sense of connection. Movement remains simple: hall, court, room.
Material Ties To Yucatán
Chukum-finish walls and Santo Tomás stone root the house in regional craft. Their matte textures work hard in the sun, absorbing light without glare and weathering with grace. Native vegetation frames arrival and softens the court, bringing scale to the long water edge and the tall living room wall. Materials stay few, which heightens each surface—the stone wall at the pool becomes both windbreak and quiet backdrop.
As evening falls, the facade glows under the upper volume while garden lights skim the stone. Air moves through the open rooms, and the pool holds the sky. The house keeps its promise: shelter first, then ease.
Photography courtesy of Arkham Projects
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