Construction Diary: They Built Their Serene Mérida Home Without Felling a Single Tree

On a small former homestead in Dzityá, a municipality just outside Mérida, Mexico, architects Zaida Briceño and Orlando Franco built a home guided by one uncompromising rule: Not a single tree on the site could be felled. The resulting 1,075-square-foot residence is shaped by the existing vegetation, with two separate rectangular volumes connected by an outdoor path. Designed as both a family retreat and a statement on sustainable development, the project reflects the ethics of the couple’s firm, FMT Estudio, which they founded in 2015.