Archinect - Features

'Architecture as Provider Instead of Shelter': Matter Design's Brandon Clifford Discusses Architecture and Speculative Design as a Catalyst for Social Good

2021-04-14T08:25:00-04:00

Learning how a design studio begins its journey into professional practice is an eye-opening experience. For Matter Design, they started with a mission to build projects they designed themselves. While this response may seem simple in its approach, they explain, "we were much more interested in the means, the methods, and communication between design and materials." Yet, four years after our Studio Snapshot interview with co-founders Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee, the practice has grown into a catalyst for bridging architecture, speculative design, and interdisciplinary social missions.

Archinect re-connected with Clifford to discuss recessions, running a speculative design studio, and how the firm's latest project AquíAquí is more than just a public space project. Clifford shared, "I can say that we have built Matter Design on a series of speculative built works that serve as individual challenges to default practice." In response to the development of AquíAquí, he explains, "we t...

Studio Visits: CO-TA Arquitectura

2019-11-12T09:19:00-05:00

Heading up the Tulum-based CO-TA Architecture is Paulina Villa who was born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, but grew up in Monterrey. Not intending to open a practice in Tulum, she found herself lured in by exciting opportunities and convinced to stay by the ease and simplicity of the transition to the Caribbean coast. The office, which involves a small team of full time staff and a network of regular freelancers and contractors in the local area are currently working on a number of hotels spread along the coast, as well as residential and commercial projects inland.

Based in the town of Tulum they share their office with a clothing atelier and a digital arts studio specializing in animation, mixed media and virtual reality. I met up with the team to find more about how the local environment informs their work and what the next steps for CO-TA Arquitectura are.

The Design Studios Leading Guadalajara’s Thriving Architecture Scene

2019-10-22T07:00:00-04:00

When we speak of contemporary Mexican architecture, there are a handful of firms that take up most of the global spotlight. Architects such as Frida Escobedo and Alberto Kalach have created much buzz within the profession in recent years, for example, the former for snagging the commission for the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion and the latter for having spent several consecutive years at the top of speculative Pritzker Prize lists.

Though both of these firms, along with nearly all of their renowned contemporaries, are based in Mexico City, there is a lesser-known—though just as intriguing—design scene brewing North of the country’s capital. Let's check it out.

Iconic Buildings: I work at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáne, Mexico City

2019-09-19T12:44:00-04:00

For our series Iconic Buildings, we speak to people who live or work in buildings of architectural significance. Is their exposure to an architectural wonder on a daily basis a source of inspiration or simply part of the backdrop?

This time, we interviewed Karla Noguez, a Curator at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáne, in Mexico City. The museum was designed by Teodoro González de León / Abraham Zabludovsky in 1972, and constructed from 1979-1981.

How Pedro&Juana Went from Working for Artist Jorge Pardo to Launching their Small Studio

2017-07-03T12:30:00-04:00

We first met Pedro&Juana at the 2015 Chicago Architectural Biennial, where we hosted the second Next Up inside a relaxed forum space they designed in the lobby of the Chicago Cultural Center. For today's Small Studio Snapshot, we're catching up with the Mexico City-based practice.

(Un)believable Utopias: 6 Forgotten Projects and their Provocative Stories

2017-06-16T10:06:00-04:00

Consciously or otherwise, social context determines design. Architecture, in turn, is capable of not only representing political ideals but also of reinforcing or shaping them—for example, through fostering forms of collective living or through breaking down gendered behavioral norms. The following projects may not be well-remembered, but they represent ambitious attempts to address or challenge the status quo through the built environment.

The Proust Questionnaire: Fernando Romero

2017-04-11T13:20:00-04:00

Every other week, we get personal with a major architect for our new series the Proust Questionnaire. For this week's iteration, we're talking with Fernando Romero, the OMA-trained architect who heads the Mexico City-based studio fr·ee.

Small Studio Snapshots: S-AR

2017-03-20T13:05:00-04:00

Located in Monterrey, Mexico, S-AR bills themselves as a collaborative Alternative Architecture workshop. Their work focuses on the design and development of architectural projects of several scales and typologies. The team works on projects that range from the designing of objects to experimental, social houses and educational buildings.

This week on Small Studio Snapshots, we talk with the team and discuss how keeping a small office allows them to take on projects that they find meaningful.

Can Trump’s anti-immigrant border wall be built without immigrant labor?

2017-02-25T13:05:00-05:00

Border agents don’t want an opaque, precast concrete wall. Financially, the wall is unlikely to be built without immigrant labor. And historically, large-scale border walls don’t keep people out as much as signal that an empire is caving in. Here’s why Donald Trump’s proposed U.S./Mexico border wall isn’t just a moral failure, but a practical one.

Interview with Escobedo Solíz Studio, winners of MoMA PS1's 2016 Young Architects Program

2016-02-16T09:09:00-05:00

Beating out other finalists First Office, Ultramodern, COBALT OFFICE and Frida Escobedo to win this year’s Young Architects Program, the Mexico City-based Escobedo Solíz Studio’s “Weaving the Courtyard” proposal is simple and relatively hands-off. With three previous built projects to their name (a pretty impressive count for a firm whose two partners are both still under thirty years old), what kind of practice is Escobedo Solíz becoming?