Hacienda San Antonio Hool
The former henequen hacienda of San Antonio Hool is for its quality of spaces and construction, a gem of the hacienda architecture of Yucatan. The estate is listed as a heritage and of cultural significance for the city of Mérida and Yucatán.
The intervention project to rescue it from a state of neglect in which it was found, thanks to the vision of the Diaz Mantecon family, was implemented by the architecture studio reyes ríos + Larrain architects. The main objective is to restore the existing buildings and adapt the complex as a hospitality destination and social and corporate events. Comprising a multidisciplinary informed conceptual design and technical project parting from the conservation criteria from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The project demanded the full collaboration of professionals from several fields such as architecture historians, project architects, restoration architects, landscape designers, interior designers, lighting designers and whose works are nationally and internationally renowned.
Even though the found state of conservation of the buildings comprising the estate was irregular, it can’t be considered exceptional that most of its architectural features and original building material remained completely acknowledgeable. The restoration project begins from the evident historical value of the buildings not only because of the architecture but also for the quality of the construction and its materials. Therefore, for the proposal to be congruent with the conservation objective from INAH the following criteria were followed:
1 – Establish a program compatible with each building or rooms within the building to guarantee their conservation in the long term while experiencing the original qualities of said buildings or spaces.
2 – The design proposal considers that each of the buildings to intervene remain intact in its reading and perspective of the original complex. To achieve this all of the main interior walls and divisions were left intact to preserve the original typology of each building.
3 – In the adaptation of the hacienda for its new use, the project opted for differentiating in style from the original architecture through reinterpretation in a contemporary design for all the new elements including the use of modern materials.
Adding to the aforementioned criteria, the project considered the concept of establishing a dialogue between the new and the old, where the new architecture takes shape and meaning by referring to the historical architecture, which takes a new meaning and projection towards the future thanks to the new elements, spaces, and buildings in the estate.
The intervention project for Hacienda Hool considers a contemporary vision of the architectural concept of palimpsest which reveals the different layers of history to manifest the value of the memory and legacy of the hacienda to transcend into the present.
