Casa Vagantes
WE ARE MOMENTS
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Story about Casa Vagantes based on our stay in one of its guests houses and the interview done to Gina Góngora and Fernando Gómez, directors of the project.
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Photographed by Mari Luz Vidal mariluzvidal.com
Casa Vagantes vagantes.mx
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Openhouse magazine Casa Vagantes
It’s five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon in June in Mérida, in the Mexican state of Yucatán as we return from visiting the ruins of Uxmal with Fernando Gómez Vivas, architect and, together with Gina Góngora, co-founder of Casa Vagantes. A project that started with a house in the city center three years ago has today grown to four more houses and turned into one of the most exciting and adventurous architecture and interior design studios in the area.
Caloncho is playing on the car speakers. It’s the first time we are hearing their music, but its rhythm seems to resound inside us. As if we were already as familiar with their entire discography as we are with Fernando, who has become an inexhaustible source of recommendations: music, architecture, history of Yucatan... He and Gina have shown extraordinary hospitality. Despite being his only day off in the week, on our way back to Mérida, Fernando takes a detour to show us a spectacular hacienda featuring an amphitheatre in the Roman style where remnants of a wedding held there the previous day can still be seen
For Gina and Fernando, the Yucatan Peninsula is much more than the place where they were born and raised. Their aim is to encourage visits from travelers seeking authenticity, to honor an area that has become a tourist destination, by creating accommodation that shows respect for its history and traditions, and that showcases its customs. Although nothing in life happens by chance, this life project came into existence most unexpectedly. Gina had been working for Vogue in Mexico City for a few years when, on a holiday to visit her family, she decided not to return to the capital: “I was offered a job in one of the most beautiful hotels here, the Coqui Coqui, and for five years I was very close to Francesca, its owner and co-founder.” Gina had always harbored the desire to one day live in the center of Mérida, where part of her family already lived, so about four years ago she started looking for a house with Fernando. “The opportunity arose and we bought the first house, which is very small. Our original plan was to live in it,” she explains. Because they had a limited renovation budget, they ruled out any structural work or changing the ceilings, and they opted to recycle as much as possible. “Scraping the walls gave us this green color which, together with the floor that was also green, is so characteristic of the house,” Gina recounts. They both liked the combination of the two green surfaces and decided to make use of it. “When we finished the renovation, it was like ‘okay, I think it’s too small to live here’. So, to recoup our investment, we started renting it out. Three months before the pandemic struck, we were getting one booking after another.”
“I always said that it made us very angry to see houses that had been almost completely stripped of their essence. Maybe our way of doing things is a bit extreme, but it worked out well for us, and we decided that we were going to apply that philosophy from then on”
The houses christened Ermita and Santa Ana followed shortly afterwards, and the same parameters were used for their remodeling. Somehow, that shabby green wall had determined the personality of Casa Vagantes, a project that today defines itself as “a community of travelers whose properties welcome avid lovers of imperfection and unique experiences”. Their way of understanding architecture and interior design, based on loyalty and respect, was so well received that Fernando left the architecture studio of which he was a partner in order to devote himself to all the projects that were coming in as a result of the impact that Casa Vagantes was having. In turn, Gina began to organically design the interiors, just as she had done in her own home. “My process is totally different from the traditional interior design process. I have a team that helps me with the technical part, but I work more on intuition, being on site and changing things up.” In the field, their actions are those of a surgeon or an art conservator. Project by project, Gina and Fernando seem to be acknowledging the work of architects and interior designers of the past: anonymous people who practiced at a time when both professions had more to do with craft and the need to build a cave for shelter than with that media-worthy and grandiloquent architecture that seems to shout ‘look at me’. “I always said that it made us very angry to see houses that had been almost completely stripped of their essence. Maybe our way of doing things is a bit extreme, but it worked out well for us, and we decided that we were going to apply that philosophy from then on.”
The project has now expanded to Izamal, Kantonyá and, perhaps soon, to Valladolid, but for Gina, there is something special about the first projects undertaken in Mérida: “In the downtown of the city, we have houses in Montejo, Santa Ana and Ermita Este, which are the main neighborhoods of the historic center. They each have a different history; they’re from different periods; and they also have different lives. La Ermita is a very lively neighborhood filled with locals. If you go out on a Sunday, you can see the residents playing in the park. Santa Ana has been taken over a bit by tourism, but there are still many businesses and offices there. And well, Montejo is, as they say, our Champs-Élysées.”
Gina’s ideals put her off the architectural boom that Mérida is experiencing, although she finds the prosperity that this sometimes brings to be a good thing: “I actually have a love-hate relationship with architecture. I feel like people are looking at local architects in a new light, and that’s a good thing. But society and the city’s growth... I think we’re moving a bit, not against the tide, but to one side.” She is aware of what the world sees in her city because she is also passionate about it: “I love living here. There are so many things... I mean, the beach is so close! There’s not as much to do as in Mexico City, but hey, there’s always plenty to create too. Things to discover.” After three years of working at a dizzying pace, a time in which they have been focusing on projects for clients, Gina is looking to go further with Vagantes. “We’ve actually grown quite a lot, considering that we started in 2020. We opened five houses in two years. That’s practically one every six months. My time now is devoted to the accommodation, to media exposure, to improving the business side. There are a thousand things I want to do because I feel it’s more of a lifestyle brand than anything else.”
After a full day’s immersion into Yucatán's history, we arrived in Mérida just as Caloncho’s chorus seemed to announce the end: “Somos instantes, un ratito nada más. Seres fugaces que vienen y se van [We are moments, just for a little while. Fleeting beings that come and go]”