Sep '04 - May '12
Ok so...the morning after a peculiar september 15.... on one hand and as every year that date, september 15 is the start (at night) of independence day celebrations here in mexico (independence day is actually sept 16, but the independence war was supposed to start 15 at midnight), so im with a slightly hangover from last night, specially cause i was celebrating i presented also my thesis yesterday and graduated with a sorpresive "mencion honorifica" (something like "with honours"), ok so... mmhhh some people wanted to see some images of the thesis..i would make a brief introduction to the project before:
The project adressed a competition which was held a couple of months back here in mexico, an invitation-only competition which invited only 8 young mexican architecture offices (all under 40 years old) to design a temporary pavillion for mexico @ the ARCO fair in Madrid (the Arco fair: Contemporary Art Fair @ Madrid), one of the most important contemporary art fairs (with Basel, and maybe Venice) in the world which each year invites a country so they can specifically focus on that country contemporary/latest art, and 2005 is Mexico the one invited.
so... the project involved a lot of stuff and a long process (well not long in time but intense and a lot of research theoretical and formal) trying to redefine what's a mexican identity, and trying also to design something which break with the normal image of mexico that ppl from the outside have (ppl still in horses, and/or with guns in their belts, or tequila plants, or cactuses, pink-barragan-like walls, etc), so..mmhh i dunno what more to explain, there's a lot of skecthes of the process i could show...but i will focus on the final product and skip some of the concepts and such...just as an experimentation of the reaction ppl would actually had if our proposal had won (we came 2nd place).
The thesis showed these work as a justification for the main theoretical subject of it, that was the importance of ephemeral architecture these days, not only as how was thinked of 20 years ago (escenographies or comercial stands) but as a very important aspect of architecture that has to respond today to the conditions of the contemporary societies, At the beginning of 2002, the UN estimated there were about 12 million refugees around the world, 25 million people displaced within their own countries, and more than 500 nongovermanental organizations working with the UN's high comission for refugees. Ephemeral, non-permanent architectures need to be potencialized now more than ever, when people also is more dinamic than ever, ppl form everywhere works/studies at somewhere else than their own country/region, architecture needs to recognize that and act to satisfy that social fluxes and needs , war evacuations, natural dissasters evacuation (just remember a couple of weeks ago, Miami was almost evacuated for a hurricane, 2 million people in just hours?), Kosovo, Afganistán, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Tanzania, Zaire, Mexio - States border, are just some of the many examples of places where "flotant" and/or temporal inhabitans locate around the world.
so anyways.....the images:
a upper perspective view of the pavillion
plan
an image of an interior study model
section
section
section
model
model
model
thanks for ur patience and attention folks
Tales and Adventures of my time at the IaaC when this was in it's early years. Feel free to contact me for more reference, in any case i would advice you to enroll here.
7 Comments
aside from the fact that the pavillion looks really good, absolutely great model... how did ou shape it? is it hollow thruout or just beginning and end?
congratulations for the honourable mention!
excellent work MADianito. the presentation is very well done. congrats.
Rich Ceccanti, do u mean with "how we sahepd it"?? as what was our inspiration/concept on giving such form??, well it was a long process (mmhh maybe i should post some sketches so u can see how the shape started to develop) but basically mmhh besides all the intentions to not be folklorical about mexico, we kind of thought of another perspective of the young impatience mexico, still feeling like trapped by squared minded forces (the policarbonate fence), still basically we wanted to divide the given site (Conde Duque Cultural center patio) in 2 and put a garden inside it, so we basically drew a line in the middle which mutated into a "tunnel" and then we took one of our first ideas of making a "topography" in all the patio with the pavillion underneath it, and start making an inside topography in the "tunnel" we had now as also in the outside, it has connotations philosophically speaking of Debord and Deleuze obviously...but u know i dont really like to tell all that when what matters is the simple reaction of simple visitors...well i hope my answer helped u a little bit more, thanks for taking the time, and thanks for the comments too... never expected a compliment from people as Paul P. thanks i must say, i feel very flattered.
really nice drawings, MAD. and the building looks excellent. you're right, posting the process sketches/diagrams would be really helpful in understanding the evolution of your form and your spatial logic. oh, and what material strategies have you employed in your pavillion?
que chingon! hey, really nice work man. great drawings. i love those sections.
o, y otra cosa... que viva mexico!
materials? mmhh recylced policarbonated fences (from the previous pavillion, 2 swiss boxes) a steel strcuture, and espumated PVC with structural silicon to seal the joins and tree "skin" to cover the 2 patios that where formed...we tried to keep it very simple
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