Xuva´ Restaurant / Mecate Studio

Curated by Clara Ott

Architects: Mecate Studio
Area: 150 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs:Zaickz Moz
Manufacturers: Archicad, Llano de la Torre, Murart
Lead Architects: Abraham Buenrostro, Cipactlic Casas, Sebastián Monjarás, Fernando Lúa, Ingrid Ábrego

Text description provided by the architects. Casa Ribera is located inside a historical building dated to the end of the 19th century in the heart of a traditional mexican neighborhood named Santa María la Ribera, in Mexico City.

The house is made up of two galleries, the front one is protected by the National Institute of Fine Artes, (INBA in its Spanish acronym, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes) due to its cultural and historical value; the second one extends along the property with a side traditional courtyard of that time.

Xuva´ Restaurant / Mecate Studio - Exterior Photography, Garden — © Zaickz Moz

The “Casa Ribera” house contains XUVA’s restaurant, the design office of the textile "Balmaceda Studio", the "SAQ" gallery, the "Mecate Home" art & design store and finally, the architecture and design office "Mecate Studio". This space is conceived for the dissemination and creation of art and culture in different disciplines, generating familiarity between the visitor and the creative artist.

The first design challenge was to rescue the original spatial structure and restore the tectonic force of the great walls since the spaces had undergone multiple changes over time, as well as rescuing and enhancing its ornamental elements.

XUVA's restaurant arises as a result of a trip with chef Juan Aquino to his loved birth town in the Oaxaca coast, we created a space that was an allegory to the rich and colorful Mixteca-Tacuate community, a place that evokes the mountainous area of Santa María Zacatepec.

XUVA’ takes the side courtyard of the house in the old parking lot, a narrow and long space, meanwhile an original quarry frame serves as an element that announces the entrance to a new interior space oppened , a place that invites delve into it.

The space between the translucent roof and the green ceiling works as a thermal chamber that climatizes the restaurant. At the same time, the structure contains the organic garden where some of the ingredients used in the dishes are planted.

Each of every element of the project was designed and manufactured especially for XUVA ', the handmade mosaic floor made out of clay that alludes the shade of the trees, the polished granite tables that contain the reflect of the sky that can be seen between the intricate vegetation of its arboreal ceiling, the metal & leather chairs, benches that provide a housing feeling with the touch, and the high-temperature ceramic tableware that praises the hand that transforms the material.

A space of intimate proportions that envelops you in its exuberant vegetation, radiant colors and pure and expressive materials. A Living space that breaks with the city speed and transports you to the tranquility of Oaxaca´s coast in an atmosphere of warmth and freshness.