Nosotros | Casa Gemela

Us

Nosotros - Casa Gemela

Casa Gemela is a cultural venue and art gallery, a house that expresses with its architecture a neocolonial identity that has distinguished the urban landscapes of the Itzimná neighborhood and the México neighborhood in Mérida, Yucatán.

This house hosts art exhibitions, as well as concerts and unique presentations in a private and exclusive space with internationally renowned musicians and artists.

This emblematic project, in the words of its founders, has the mission of disseminating, promoting and fostering cultural and artistic production that contributes to the integral and inclusive human development of the entire Yucatecan society.

It should be noted that the architectural restoration was directed by the master Luciano Cedillo and his team from Conservación Fractal, who with the support of Mafra Desarrolladora have carried out this incredible project.

Discover Casa Gemela and live art and culture together with the best local, national and international artists and exponents.

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Our architecture

“Twin Houses”, built in 1946 with an innovative design on two levels with spacious rooms and an organic pool, built in masonry with mezzanines of drowned steel beams (a technique that replaces the traditional bac-pec), large windows and its own style within the neocolonial.

Due to the temporality, it was creating a stylistic pregnancy to an art-deco newcomer, of which we find vestiges in some details, decoration and undoubtedly in the rudeness of the property, becoming an ideal place for the home of the Rodríguez family, who were the first population.

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History

During the 1940s, the Yucatan government had direct participation in the growth of the city. Therefore, in 1941, the Yucatan State Congress approved the first concessions that promoted the development of some suburbs. In 1945, 1946, and 1949, legislators approved the granting of tax-free premiums to property owners in the emerging suburbs: Mexico, Cortés Sarmiento, and Pensiones, respectively.

Due to urban growth, the company Fomento de Yucatán was created in 1942 during the government of Ernesto Novelo Torres (1942-1946) with the purpose of raising the standard of living of workers. The company decided to buy a large piece of land in the north of the city to create a suburb for the middle and working class and reduce the housing shortage that arose at the time. This is how the suburb of Mexico was conceived, originally planned to have wide streets and gardens, a school, parks and public services.

Our house was built in 1946 within the Itzimná neighborhood that was part of the Hacienda Buenavista and the beginning of the Mexico suburb, right at the intersection of 31st Avenue and 16th Street.

In the early 1950s, downtown was gradually abandoned to the north of the city. Stores equipment and services, as well as many families decided to move residence. The area's health teams concentrated in the downtown neighborhoods, while the food, beer, and cement industries consolidated in outlying areas of the city. This initiated an economic development that during the following decade resulted in the settlement of facilities and businesses with expressions of modern functionalist architecture.

A good example of the creation of new infrastructure and public facilities for administration, health, supply, and education is the private primary school of the Marist Brothers built in 1954 in the Itzimná neighborhood.