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Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcción

The Mexican architecture firm Workshop Diseño y Construcción led by Francisco Bernés and Fabián Gutiérrez has designed Filux Lab an artistic space located in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.

Architect's statement: Filux Lab is the new art laboratory of the "International Festival of Lights Mexico - FILUX". It works as an independent space destined to consolidate the "sense of artistic community"; it serves as a meeting point between artists, experts and the public. Filux Lab’s international program is based on experimentation, production, promotion and exhibition of cultural projects which take light and cinema as their starting point. In this way, it establishes itself as a global reference from Mexico to the world.

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe         

Located in the city of Merida, Yucatan, the colonial house that contains Filux Lab represents a versatile space that works as a gallery, as a workshop and as a place of coexistence, camaraderie and research for artistic purposes. The ground floor has five rooms, which were part of the original structure of the house before the intervention. The pasta floor carpets of the first corridor are the originals. An edge of Antique White color mosaics joins the originals to the new flooring, which unites old and new flooring across the entirety of the space.

Ground Floor PlanGround Floor Plan

The design of the laboratory enables it to adapt according to its intended use. All the elements that make up its architecture including floors, walls, ceilings, and doors can be used for artistic interventions. White and neutral colors came from this same need.

Upper Floor PlanUpper Floor Plan

No space within the laboratory has fixed lighting. All of the lamps that are used have a connector that can be plugged through electric extension cords from different points, allowing the space to evolve quickly depending on the dynamics each particular user requires. The back esplanade, with its more modern and bolt design, breaks with the traditional reading of the Yucatecan colonial architecture. It invites users to experiment with the high walls that are ideal for projections and that, thanks to the different moldings around the openings and the use of lattices in the walls, offer endless options to play with lighting.

Mexican house with blue facade image © Tamara Uribe   

During the day, sunlight offers a spectacular geometric game between lights and shadows that are projected at different points of the building, and during the night the versatility of artificial lights allows users to create different luminous atmospheres. Serving as a blank canvas, essentially going “unnoticed”, to highlight the pieces of art in presentations and exhibitions, and, on the other hand, standing out and distinguishing when there is not art on the premises, allows the building to serve dual purposes. Filux Labs turns itself into a new work of art every time different forms of lighting are accommodated or used.

The second floor has the administrative area that includes offices, a library with a collection focused mainly on light and two terraces, which are accessed via a spiral staircase that crowns the back facade of the building and elegantly highlights the esplanade as sculpture itself. When crossing the white doors of the facade, the known is left behind. The space invites all who enter to discover and create new sensory experiences in the universe of light, the universe of FILUX.

white facade walls image © Tamara Uribe   

White House with illumination and inner courtyard image © Tamara Uribe   

green trees can be seen from rooftop of the house image © Tamara Uribe   

spiral staircase connects the ground floor to the upper floor image © Tamara Uribe   

white spiral staircase design image © Tamara Uribe   

sunlight hitting the white wall image © Tamara Uribe   

house with white walls surrounded with green landscape image © Tamara Uribe   

big tree has grown inside the courtyard of the house image © Tamara Uribe   

girl in white dress standing on a spiral staircase in a house in Merida image © Tamara Uribe   

two girls in white dress on the rooftop of the house image © Tamara Uribe   

girls in white clothes standing by a white wall and chatting image © Tamara Uribe   

house with inner courtyard image © Tamara Uribe   

room with blue median tiles on the foor image © Tamara Uribe   

shade and shadow on the wall image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

spiral staircase design image © Tamara Uribe   

girl with white dress and barefoot sitting on chair image © Tamara Uribe   

woman with black clothes enters the house image © Tamara Uribe   

sun flower shaped lighting image © Tamara Uribe   

beautiful Mexican young girl image © Tamara Uribe   

lighting design image © Tamara Uribe   

dark room with floor lampimage © Tamara Uribe   

house with illumination at night image © Tamara Uribe   

big tree in the courtyard of the house image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

the projector lights hits on the wall in the night image © Tamara Uribe   

spiral staircase design image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

dancing light image © Tamara Uribe   

shadow of the girl on the wall image © Tamara Uribe   

green light and a Mexican girl image © Tamara Uribe   

lighting design image © Tamara Uribe   

yellow light on the wall image © Tamara Uribe   

lights performance on the wall image © Tamara Uribe   

 gaming with light inside the gallery image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

dark house with candles on the floor image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

light in the shape of space image © Tamara Uribe   

bookshelf image © Tamara Uribe   

image © Tamara Uribe   

light exhibition in Mexico image © Tamara Uribe   

red light exhibition image © Tamara Uribe   

hanged pendant lamps image © Tamara Uribe   

image © Tamara Uribe   

young man in a dark room in from of light image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

image © Tamara Uribe   

image © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

Filux Lab in Mérida, Yucatán by Workshop Diseño y Construcciónimage © Tamara Uribe   

Roof PlanRoof Plan

Front Facade and SectionFront Facade and Section

Section DrawingSection 

Section DrawingSection 

 

Project name: Filux Lab 

Architecture firm: Workshop Diseño y Construcción

Location: 64st 383A, Downtown, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

Completion Year: 2019

Gross Built Area: 200 m²

Design and Construction Team: o Bernés Aranda, Fabián Gutiérrez Cetina, Alejandro Bargas Cicero and Isabel Bargas Cicero

Photography: Tamara Uribe         

Client: FILUX Mexico, International festival of lights

Lighting designer: Luca Salas Bassani

Art Installation shown in picutres by: Orfeo Quagliata, Toto Martínez / Benjamín García, Miguel Bolivar, Luis Ramírez, Diego Cano, Marcelo Schuster


By Naser Nader Ibrahim

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