García de Alba and Ponce Arquitectos Hang a Green Fabric Vault Inside a Double-Height Restaurant in Mérida

Mimado is a 250 m² restaurant in Temozón Norte, the commercial strip on Mérida's northern edge where new buildings tend to look interchangeable from the road. García de Alba and Ponce Arquitectos, led by Rodolfo García de Alba and Alberto Ponce, did not get a blank site. They got an existing double-height commercial box, and they decided early that the interior would carry the identity of the project. The facade does some signalling, but the real work happens under the ceiling.

That ceiling is the interesting part. A green fabric vault, pleated and suspended, hangs over the main hall and turns a generic tall volume into something closer to a room with a roof of its own. Around it, the architects layer regional materials that Yucatán builders know well, such as white chukum plaster and cantera stone, with white oak, fluted glass, green glazed tile and a mural made from recycled books. The result reads as warm and slightly Art Deco. It also shows how much a fit-out can achieve when the brief puts the money into surfaces and section instead of structure.

From the Street to the Aisle

From outside, Mimado works through a few moves: green rooftop lettering, a cantilevered canopy, a glazed storefront and red-leaved planting that softens the corner. It is a pragmatic facade for a car-oriented district. It announces the restaurant without trying to compete with the interior.

Once you step inside, the plan sets up a long aisle. The glazed tile counter runs along one side and a planted bed and tall mural sit along the other. The kitchen appears through monstera and palm leaves before it appears in full, and that small delay is a good piece of choreography. Planting acts as a filter here, not as decoration bolted onto the end of the project.

A Vault Without Masonry

Double-height commercial shells have a known problem: they are tall without being generous, and diners at ground level end up sitting under a lot of empty air. The architects answer this with an arched, ribbed ceiling in green fabric that sits below the original structure and gives the hall a defined top. The curve recalls a barrel vault, and the ribbing nods to Art Deco banding, but the material is soft, light and plainly suspended.

We like that the gesture does not pretend to be stone. It reads as a canopy, and in warm evening light it turns the room green and enclosed. The mural wall below gives the vault something to land against, so the section feels composed rather than improvised.

Fabric as a Building Material

Up close, the fabric is more crafted than the wide shots suggest. Pleats ripple across the ceiling and fold diagonally down the walls, so each fold catches light on one face and drops into deep shadow on the other. Where the vault meets the plaster, a strip of oak trims the edge and small illustrated panels hang just below. That junction is where fit-outs usually fail, and here it holds.

Fabric also does practical work that the photographs cannot show directly. A hard-surfaced, double-height dining room full of tile and stone would be loud. Draping the upper half of the room in folded textile almost certainly helps the acoustics, even though the published information does not state an acoustic brief.

Tile, Oak and the Working Counter

The green glazed tile counter is the spine of the ground floor. It runs from the open kitchen past the pastry display to the service points, and its colour links it to the vault overhead. Kitchen equipment by Cocinas Fuego sits in full view behind it, so the cooking becomes part of the interior instead of being hidden away from it.

Elsewhere the palette calms down. A timber bar with cream stools, plaster walls and framed food prints of asparagus, eggs and a coffee pot give the smaller corners a domestic quality. That shift in register matters. It keeps the restaurant from feeling like a single themed set and lets you choose between the theatre of the main hall and a quieter seat at the edge.

Stone Stair and Timber Mezzanine

A stone stair, most likely in the cantera supplied by Sole Stone, rises between the tiled counter and a wood-clad mezzanine. It is the heaviest element in the room, and it anchors the vertical movement visually while the fabric floats overhead. The material contrast follows a clear logic: heavy at the base and in your hand, light at the top.

From the mezzanine, the oak band frames views down onto diners and the pastry case. The upper level gains a sense of overlook, and the double height starts to work as a shared volume rather than two stacked floors. For a 250 m² plan, that visual connection makes the restaurant feel larger than its area.

Banquettes, Louvres and Recycled Books

Along the perimeter, dark green banquettes sit beneath slatted timber windows that filter the Yucatán sun into soft bands of light. Potted palms and monstera fill the ledges. These are the most comfortable seats in the house, and they show the architects reading the climate sensibly: daylight is welcome, glare is not.

Above one banquette, a panel of painted book pages, part of the recycled-book mural, brings texture at eye level. It is a modest sustainability gesture, but it gives the walls a grain that new materials rarely have. Together with the white chukum, a lime-and-sascab plaster traditional to the region, it roots the interior in local craft without falling into folk pastiche.

Plans and Drawings

The plans clarify the zoning. On the ground floor, dining tables, planter beds, the kitchen, the stair and the restrooms organise themselves along the angled edge of the site, with a tree-lined terrace outside. Upstairs, planter strips divide the seating into smaller zones around the central stair and void, and an umbrella-shaded terrace extends the restaurant outdoors.

The sections make the strategy explicit. The green arched vault sits within the double-height room, the mezzanine planter overlooks the café tables, and a slatted screen wraps the upper facade. Seen together, the drawings confirm that the project is about section first: how to inhabit a tall, ordinary volume at a human scale.

Why This Project Matters

Most restaurant fit-outs in fast-growing districts like Temozón Norte are built to be replaced. Mimado suggests a better approach. Its architects accept the existing shell, put their effort into a single strong sectional idea, and back it up with regional materials such as chukum and cantera that will age well and that local builders know how to repair.

The suspended vault is the lesson for designers working with inherited commercial boxes. You do not need new structure to make a room feel deliberate. A light, well-detailed ceiling, a clear material hierarchy and planting used as a spatial filter can turn speculative square footage into a place people remember.

Mimado Restaurant by García de Alba and Ponce Arquitectos (Rodolfo García de Alba and Alberto Ponce), Temozón Norte, Mérida, Mexico. Area: 250 m². Completed: 2024. Photography: Diafragmas.

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