Framing the Courtyard

The look of the central courtyard is shaping up. Here is an image looking straight out through the mosquito screens toward the east wall. If you imagine some vines on the wall and a few trees and philodendrons for good measure, you can start to picture the framed views that inspired us on a recent visit to the Kampong Garden in Florida.

Each day, design ideas come and go. Since yesterday, you will notice we have replaced the terracotta tile in the courtyard with a local limestone called Concheula (or shell stone). The terracotta was a little “grandma” and so we chucked it (see below for an updated view). If only real construction was this easy.

Time to Get Serious

Our base design is complete.  Our builder is hired.  It’s now time to make some hard choices regarding wall and floor finishes, column details, overhangs, and exposed structural connections.  In tandem, we also need to firm up the ethereal ideas we have about various systems - lighting, drainage, solar, etc. - that will make the building comfortable.  So much to do.

First up - materials.  Until now, our 3-D renders of the house have all been in a single color and not terribly realistic.  This image is such a shot, depicting the western side of our inner courtyard (to capture the entire courtyard, we had to set the “camera” 15 meters back from our property - making it quite unrealistic because the adjacent buildings would technically be in the way).

Yesterday, we started rendering with colors, depicting materials with a simple palette.  We decided on white to represent lime-washed walls, orange for terracotta floors, and dark brown for steel, including the mosquito screen doors and other accents like handrails and building trims.

What a difference.  Previously we had always felt this perspective of our house was pretty ugly.  With base colors in, the building is transformed.  We are starting to see some strong horizontal lines to match the length of our site.  With the addition of dark colors, the mosquito screens dissolve allowing the two sides of the courtyard to mesh together more fully.  By defining some extra detail, shadows are emerging to provide texture and depth.

Here are a few additional shots of the courtyard from under the covered living area.  We definitely think it’s starting to come together!

An Urban Forest

While scouring Miami’s Design District oggling at high-end designer furniture we can only dream of owning, we stumbled upon this little courtyard surrounded by a dimpled copper fence.

This garden lounge, designed by landscape architect Enzo Enea, is about the size of our central courtyard, so we went inside and (over) analyzed it.

We love the strong horizontal and vertical lines working across the space. Seating is informal and the whole room seems equally capable of hosting an evening dinner party or a quiet afternoon with a book. With the sparse plantings composed of only a few species, the overall feeling is that of a restained urban jungle.

The only thing that gives us pause is the bamboo. Although beautiful, our landscape architect friend Patrick says that mosquitoes love to breed in the hollow branches and should therefore be avoided in mosquito-rich Mérida.

Research is Tough

We decided to swing through Miami on the way home to research outdoor living spaces and gardens. With a camera in one hand and martini in the other, we scoured numerous hotels, art deco buildings and public gardens in the Miami area for inspiration.

Our first stop was the outdoor lounge (pictured above) at the Setei hotel in Miami Beach. Although far more decadent than anything we will construct, we were impressed by how well the space achieved a level of intimacy.

We have looked at a great many waterside seating areas for inspiration in our own  project.  Most, like the JH House, leave us feeling a bit cold.  The typical bright blue sheet of water with adjacent (but not integrated) seating area lacks a certain intimacy.  Great if you want to lay out with a book, but not the right setting for a dinner party with close friends.

By inserting seating areas into the pool, the outdoor lounge at the Setei got it just right.  Surrounded by water, we were able to admire it without disengaging from the table conversation.  Nestled this way, it felt private and serene.

The wooden canopy overhead added intimacy by subtly outlining an outdoor room within the larger courtyard.  The dramatic height of this canopy helped to lift us out of the courtyard and connect us with the sky above.

How all this applies to our renovation will require some more thought.

Looking Up

Here are two additional images showing the second level as seen from below.

These views are much more accurate than the image we posted a few weeks back.  The previous image was taken as if you were viewing the house from the neighbor’s yard (impossible to do in reality but useful when designing to see the whole thing at once).  These new images show the house in the way you will actually see it - standing on our property, looking almost straight up.

We are still cleaning up the revised floor plans and will post them shortly.

1. Looking up from the media room.  The guest bedroom sits above the living room.

2. Looking up to the master bedroom from the outdoor seating area.  The covered balcony will most likely be filled with potted plants.

Living Area Redefined

After we last posted an image of our evolving design process, we had a chance to sit back and evaluate it. We decided that the basic layout was mostly good, but the overall look of the building was pretty ugly. As our focus at that time was on function, not form, we weren’t overly stressed.

What disturbed us most was how poorly the outdoor living room was shaping up. We essentially had a set of sofas in a space that was ill defined and looked more like a corridor than a room.

We immediately got to work on fixing the living space, making it more intimate while staying well connected to the outdoors. We are currently experimenting with a screened arcade that can open or close as needed to provide protection from the weather, bats and the ever-present mosquitoes.

What follows is a set of images that illustrates how it’s shaping up. Largely  schematic, the images lack details such as garden, glazing, colors, and materials, but you get the idea. Take a look and let us know your thoughts.

1. Looking south, this image shows the entrance to the central courtyard. Garden seating is situated to your left in a yet-to-be-defined green space.  The main living area lies around the corner to the right.

2. Crossing from the garden seating area into the living room. At this point you start to catch a glimpse of the rear garden through the windows at the end.

3. A view through the doors to the dining room.  The rear garden (imagine lush and tropical) opens up through the large picture window.

4. The dining room and kitchen share a common space. This image looks into the dining room from the central island in the kitchen.

5. Returning to the living room, looking north from the dining room. The screens running along the right can be closed when the weather isn’t cooperating. The stairs on the left take you up to the bedrooms.

6. Standing in the central courtard looking toward the media room in the main house. Looking up you see the master bedroom with its view below.