Casa Soskil, a Ludwig Godefroy garden house in Mérida

A Brutalist Home in Mérida by Ludwig Godefroy

Casa Soskil was published in ArchDaily, Designboom, and Thisispaper within a year of its 2024 completion, and it's easy to see why. The house is designed backwards. Ludwig Godefroy, the French-born architect working from Mexico City since 2011 and the designer of the much-lauded Casa Mérida, started with the void. Concrete volumes float around the site's pre-existing trees, framing sky and canopy. The result is a brutalist vacation home in central Mérida where two bedrooms, a study, and a daybed room orbit one open-air living room.

Godefroy calls it a house conceived from its negative space. The site came with two environments, hard sun by the street and deep shade under the tamarinds behind, and the plan turns that split into the architecture. There's a pole of light for gathering and a pole of shade for retreat, stitched together by a path through the garden.

The bedrooms are concrete chambers softened by cream linen curtains behind dark timber mullions. One bed sits in an alcove cast into the wall, lit by a circular aperture that frames stone and foliage. The bathrooms are spare and sculptural: a freestanding oval tub on pale concrete, a second monolithic tub beneath a curved ceiling, and a plaster-walled shower in warm beige.

The ground floor is the garden, and it runs from the entrance door to the back wall. At the front, the pool and solarium take the full sun. A sunken lounge is recessed into a concrete platform mid-plot, mature trunks rising straight through the slab. Behind, a gravel courtyard with a curved concrete bench circles the fire pit beneath a timber pergola strung with ivy.

Layout

This vacation home for rent in Mérida sleeps up to four guests. Across 250 square meters, two queen bedrooms are raised on stilts among the trees, each a freestanding pavilion above the garden. At ground level, the shaded rear holds a study and a daybed room, which doubles as a third sleeping option. The front holds the open living and dining terrace, and the pool. The home has two full bathrooms and a half bath.

• Bedroom 1 — Queen

• Bedroom 2 — Queen

• Daybed room — Ground floor, third sleeping option

• half bath

Experiences

Casa Soskil takes bookings for weddings, events, and commercial photo and film productions. Please inquire for details.

Good to know

Self check-in runs on a keypad through a private entrance. The home hosts a maximum of four guests, parties are not allowed, and smoking is permitted. There is no TV or dryer, but there is air conditioning, wifi, a washing machine with drying rack, and free street parking. Exterior security cameras cover both entrances.

Amenities & services

Swimming pool, solarium terrace, fire pit, sunken lounge, study, daybed room, hammock, outdoor dining area, outdoor shower, freestanding bathtubs, private entrance, air conditioning, wifi, oven, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, toaster, Nespresso coffee maker, cooking basics, dishes and cutlery, wine glasses, dining table, washing machine, drying rack, hangers, hot water, shampoo, conditioner, body soap and shower gel, self check-in keypad, free street parking, exterior security cameras, carbon monoxide alarm, smoking allowed, event and photo shoot bookings

Around

Mérida is the Yucatán's capital with colonial blocks in white limestone, which is why locals call it the white city. From the center, you can walk the mansions of Paseo de Montejo, built on 19th-century henequen money, and eat exceptionally well. The city has become one of Mexico's serious food destinations, from market stalls to tasting menus. Cenotes for swimming start within 45 minutes of town. The Mayan city of Uxmal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about 80km south. Chichén Itzá is roughly 120km east. The Gulf beaches at Progreso are 35 minutes north.