Archinect - News

Fernanda Canales talks to the New York Times about designing better social opportunities in a challenged Mexico

2024-03-04T13:22:00-05:00

“Without opportunities for social interaction, places are more insecure, divided and isolated [...] How can you provide value to a landscape that is neglected? How do you provide an opportunity to see your town in a new way?”

Against a national backdrop poisoned by femicides, border politics, and the equally toxic influence of cartels, Fernanda Canales is making democratic life in underserved Mexican communities more feasible through her highly user-sensitive and socializing designs.

The Mexico City-based architect tells the New York Times' Sam Lubell of her contributions to the government’s $2 billion Programa de Mejoramiento Urbano (or P.M.U.) program, "They will survive local circumstances — issues of budgets, politics and vandalism," adding that "Over time, the public starts to make decisions and inject life. Things change and adapt. Time teaches us what prevails. Often it’s what we can’t imagine now."

Canales was also one of a century profiled in RIBA’s new 100 Women: Architects in Practice, which came out in January and has been reviewed favorably as an essential guide to future equality in the profession. She has been teaching at the UT Austin School of Architecture since the Fall after seeing ...

Arquine showcases the beauty of Chilean and Mexican architecture in two new books

2020-05-06T13:45:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Arquine

Images of Contemporary Chilean Architecture

In the winter, 15 photographers visited some of the most iconic contemporary architecture projects that have put Chile on the map over the last three decades. A collection of new images presents the singularity of these works that have shaped the recent imaginary and brought visibility to this area of Chile’s cultural development. The photographs hover over details, forms, textures, lights and colors, in spaces, landscapes or natural environments.

Image © Iwan Baan. Courtesy of Arquine

Documentary excerpts show the ways of life, the relations between buildings and cities or natural environments. This new view of these constructions highlights their contributions, intrinsic value, and the possible contemporary currents affecting the local culture. This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Winter: Images of Contemporary Chilean Architecture within the...

New documentary follows an artist's quest to access the archives of revered Mexican architect Luis Barragán

2019-05-01T16:15:00-04:00

A new documentary, to be shown at the IFC Center later this month, follows artist Jill Magid's bizarre journey to accessing the archives of revered Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Titled "The Proposal," the film is that last chapter in her project—The Barragán Archives—that started back in 2013, when Magid began her efforts to photograph his works.

Barragán's one-of-a-kind archive is owned by the Swiss furniture company Vitra, whose tight grip on the materials hampered Magid's efforts—so much so, that the artist even exhumed some of Barragán's ashes, famously pressing them into a two-carat diamond in the hopes it could be used in exchange for access to the vault.

This episode, along with the myriad of other events and procedures that went into trying to get access to Barrágan's archives, have been meticulously documented and chronicled in her new film The Proposal. Information on upcoming screenings can be found here. You can watch a trailer for the film below.

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Who is Michel Rojkind and what does this new hire mean for WeWork?

2019-04-06T15:36:00-04:00

WeWork has made great efforts as to integrating top design strategies and progressive data analytics to develop the most progressive buildings office spaces. Tapping into various elements of design, such as urban planning to design interiors, WeWork prides itself in its hand-selected team of designers, data analysts, and of course architects. Last year WeWork announced starchitect Bjarke Ingles as chief architect for the multi-billion dollar company. This week the company announced the hiring of Mexican architect Michel Rojkind as their senior VP of Architecture. However, what does that mean exactly?

Foro Boca. Image © Rojkind Architectos

Tori Tori Altavista - Restaurant. Image by Jaime Navarro Rojkind

R432: mixed-use tower in downtown Mexico City. Image © Rojkind Architectos

Aside from now working with one of the largest office leasing companies in the world, Rojkind's professional career is comprised of high leveled projects and an array of design experience. After founding his firm ...

Zaha Hadid Architects' pays homage to Spanish-Mexican architect Félix Candela

2018-11-02T14:25:00-04:00

Showcasing their first exhibition in Latin America, Zaha Hadid Architects creates a dazzling structural form honoring architect and engineer Félix Candela. The Spanish-Mexican architect made several major contributions in shaping and developing Mexican architecture. One of his most notable contributions was the creation of thin, shell like structures made out of reinforced concrete called cascarones. In true Zaha Hadid fashion, the team was inspired by these structures and developed KnitCandela.

Los Manantiales, 1958 by Félix Candela Image © Gallery 400

Constructed at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City, the process consisted of the introduction of new computational design methods and an innovative KnitCrete fabrication. Never failing to skimp on details, the structures overall form was inspired by the the colorful and fluid forms of traditional dresses of Mexico. The combination of soft and hard materials are marrie...

Productora and Isaac Broid’s Teopanzolco Cultural Center bordering Pre-Hispanic pyramids wins Oscar Niemeyer Award

2018-10-24T13:34:00-04:00

A concrete performing arts venue in Cuernavaca, Mexico that sits adjacent to an archaeological site has won the Oscar Niemeyer Award for Latin American Architecture. Started in 2016 by Redbaal, a network of Latin American architecture biennials, the biennial prize honors an exemplary project built in a number of participating Latin American countries. For its inaugural edition two years ago, the awards honored Barclay & Crousse's Place of Remembrance in Lima.

The selected work, picked from a shortlist of 20 projects, was designed by Mexican architect Isaac Broid alongside the firm Productora. Inspired by the Aztec ruins it borders, the Teopanzolco Cultural Center uses triangular geometries, sloping roofs, and sandy coloring to connect with the site—a place where "contemporary cultural life establishes ongoing dialogue with our past," says Broid.

The project has been featured on Time's list of 'The World's 100 Greatest Places of 2018,' and was one of six shortlisted projects for the ...

Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao featured in new Time-Space-Existence video series

2017-11-21T13:53:00-05:00

Eschewing any fixed style or dogma, acclaimed Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao has instead built a body of work that is both visually daring and socially meaningful. As part of our partnership with PLANE—SITE (a Berlin-based creative agency working at the interface of urban form, cultural space and social life), we are sharing the second video from their Time-Space-Existence series which features the prominent architect discussing her work.

In this new short video, Bilbao (b. 1972) suggests that the architect has a moral responsibility to foreground people over profit. In her words, architecture is the act of “making places and spaces, by people, for people”. Produced by PLANE—SITE, the video has been commissioned by the GAA Foundation and funded by the ECC in the run-up to the Time-Space-Existence exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia Architettura (opening May 2018).

Bilbao has shot to international prominence in...