Crossing the white doors of a colonial house in Merida, Mexico, you enter the new workshop of the “Festival Internacional de las Luces México” a versatile space that works as place of experimentation, promotion and exhibition of cultural projects related to light. The space wants to be a creative meeting place between artists, technicians and the public.
On the ground floor the architects chose to maintain the original partition of the spaces and the rich pasta-floor carpets. The rooms sequence leading to the courtyard offers a multiplicity of space and materiality that artists can confront with in their interventions. The use of white and the absence of fixed lighting as all lamps can be connected using extensions at different points, contribute to create a space that can evolve rapidly and adapt to different needs. The upper floor, which houses the offices, a library and two terraces, is newly constructed and wrap around a sculptural stairway to access them. The intervention breaks with the traditional forms of Yucatan colonial architecture, inviting users to experience the high walls, ideal for projections, and the different mouldings and jealousies that offer endless possibilities to play with lighting.