Archinect - News

This minimalist Mexican house blends into its natural surroundings

2024-07-17T17:23:00-04:00

Within a woodland in Valle de Bravo, central Mexico, a minimalistic, contemporary home subtly emerges from the natural surroundings. Called Copas, the design is the work of Mexico City-based firm Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA).

Image: Luis Garvan

Image: Rory Gardiner

The 10,400-square-foot house prioritizes a close and restrained relationship with the environment. As noted by the architects, the main intention was to create an open upper floor that connects directly with the site’s treetops, forming a deeper sense of immersion in the outdoors. This proximity to the surrounding foliage helps shape the building’s ambiance and views.

Image: Rory Gardiner

The design team aimed to minimize the impact of Copas’ construction on the environment. The residence adapts to the natural topography of the site by absorbing the slope and having minimal excavation.

Image: Rory Gardiner

The home’s public spaces are elevated one level above the ground,...

Cities depend on water. Here's the best solutions for urban designers to ensure their security

2024-06-17T19:51:00-04:00

More cities will likely face these kinds of shortages as climate change, deforestation and ecosystems degradation increasingly threaten the natural systems that maintain water supplies. But nature offers solutions, too. By protecting, restoring and sustainably managing forests within their watersheds, cities can improve water quality and quantity in a cost-effective way. And they can make water sources more resilient to a changing climate.

The most recent ASLA survey of U.S.-based landscape architects confirmed the industry’s positive response to this critical demand, including that a total of 42% of respondents have said they are pursuing climate projects worth more than $1 million and another 29% saying the value of this work was over $10 million.

Mexico's recent presidential election is another barometer, as the environmental engineer and former CDMX mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s ability to tackle the looming water crisis there proved a decisive factor in her historic victory. (A catastrophic 'Day Zero', however, still looms right around the corner.)

Mexico City’s fraught water crisis could prove decisive in the upcoming national elections

2024-05-13T17:36:00-04:00

It’s a crisis a decade in the making and, without dramatic fixes, experts say the city could be approaching “Day Zero” — when a city simply runs out of water — around June. That would leave up to 20 million people in and around the capital facing a summer without running water. June also happens to be the month when Mexico will choose its next president.

'Day Zero' (or the day water taps run dry) could be looming for June in the Mexican capital and home of over 9 million people just within the city proper. Its known air quality issues have improved under Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s green policy agenda, helping her meet some claims produced by rival Xochitl Galvez and her head environmental policy advisor Rodolfo Lacy Tamayo, a former UN special climate envoy who promises a "civil rebellion" should the looming threshold be crossed.

"Even if officials pumped desalinated water from the Gulf of Mexico at great expense and environmental detriment," News Lines tells us, "it wouldn’t be enough if 40% continues to go missing. And it is true that the water which would have been saved by Sheinbaum’s promise to find and fix the city’s leaks would soothe the current crisis. Whether that would ever have been possible is another question, but it would not future-proof a system that is gradually drying."

Pelli Clarke & Partners completes the tallest building in Mexico City

2023-01-23T11:01:00-05:00

Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed Torre Mítikah, the tallest building in Mexico City. Situated in the city’s Coyoacán neighborhood, the 877-foot-tall residential skyscraper is described by its designers as a “window to the heavens.”

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

Externally, the sleek tower features a gently curved taper on the north and south facades. The design approach for the form centered on creating a “timeless quality with a strong sense of stability,” and drew inspiration from the “Axis Mundi” concept: an imaginary vertical axis linking the earth and sky.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

Inside, the scheme provides 1.1 million square feet of residential space composed of three different types of living space. While the tower's base is occupied by multi-story townhouses, the mid-levels house two and three-bedroom apartments. The upper levels are devoted to luxury penthouses with indoor gardens, exclusive terraces, and heliport access.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

News of the tower’s com...

MIT Mextrópoli installation provides a critical exploration into the use of sustainable construction materials

2022-09-28T14:50:00-04:00

A new architectural installation from MIT’s Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) for the Mextrópoli Architecture and City Festival in Mexico City is leveraging the school’s recent innovations in materials research to weave a narrative about the centuries-old capital through four materials: paper, wood, earth, and concrete.

With the help of collaborating artist Marisa Morán Jahn, faculty members Sarah Williams, Caitlin Mueller, and Rafi Segal worked to create two pavilions for the installation that is meant as an invitation to visitors to explore the city’s history and future potential under the title Sueños con Fiber/Timber, Earth/Concrete.

Image by Future Urban Collectives

Photo by Marisa Morán Jahn

Photo by Walter Shintani

Photo by Rafi Segal

The first pavilion, Fiber/Timber, repurposes the city’s iconic wood Montaña Rusa rollercoaster in a form inspired by the colorful Pre-Columbian art practice called papel picado, which again offers itself as a portal to the ci...

Activists claim censorship as Mexico City plans to replace feminist 'anti-monument'

2022-08-22T14:16:00-04:00

Residents of Mexico City are decrying a decision by officials to remove a statue protesting gender violence that had been mounted by activists last year. El Universal reported that Claudia Sheinbaum, who serves as Head of Government in Mexico City (a position akin to a state governor), had made the call to remove the feminist “anti-monument.” The statue currently appears in a roundabout in the city, and will soon be replaced by another monument

Sheinbaum has previously announced the commission of artist Pedro Reyes to replace a colonial-era sculpture by Frenchman Charles Cordier that depicted Christopher Columbus in light of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples protest last summer.

Previously on Archinect: Christopher Columbus statue to be replaced by a monument to Indigenous People in Mexico City

Reyes’ commission was quickly scrapped in favor of an “anti-monument” that debuted in its place on the roundabout in September, prompting officials to almost immediately announce it would be supplanted by a recently-discovered pre-Hispanic relic titled The Young Woman of Amajac. Now the non-hierarchical group behind the protest piece says Sheinbaum is dishonoring what has become a symbolic site for feminist causes nationwide.

“The government trying to take back anti-monument spaces is another way of them trying to silence us,” Ceci Flores, founder of the group Searching Mothers of Sonora, recently told Courtho...

Christopher Columbus statue to be replaced by a monument to Indigenous People in Mexico City

2021-09-07T15:41:00-04:00

As part of an International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples celebration in Mexico City on Sunday, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced a major new addition to a space in the city’s historic Paseo de la Reforma recently vacated by a monument to its colonial past.

Artist Pedro Reyes has now been commissioned for a replacement of a monumental bronze sculpture depicting Christopher Columbus by the Frenchman Charles Cordier that has moved around the city to its eventual place on the historic boulevard since being inaugurated by the controversial President Porfirio Diaz in 1877.

The statue was removed in October of last year in advance of the Dia de la Raza, a holiday that has in recent years drawn protests marking the arrival of the infamous colonizer in the Americas.

Reyes’ commission will depict an Indigenous woman from the Olmec civilization and come with a title that refers to a Uto-Aztecan word for “land.”

Arquine announces winners of the MEXTRÓPOLI 2020 Pavilion contest

2020-01-21T19:33:00-05:00

As preparation for the MEXTRÓPOLI 2020 Architecture and City Festival taking place in March gets underway, the festival organizers have announced the winners of a pavilion contest held in conjunction with the event. The international competition, led by Arquine, called for architects and designers to submit their best proposals for a temporary pavilion to be located within Mexico City. According to the competition brief, participants should aim to create a structure that would generate creative discourse surrounding the themes of innovation and sustainability. Proposals should also create an open public program that builds a place for the interaction between architecture and citizenship.

The contest's powerhouse jury consisted of Tatiana Bilbao, Ruth Estévez, Carlos Facio, Alberto Odériz, Saidee Springall, and Alejandro Tapia. After reviewing and evaluating 292 proposals, the group selected its winners.

The jury awarded Gastronmic Palapa by Sabrina Morreale, Lorenzo Perri (Lemonot S...

Ancient Mesoamerican ball game returns to Mexico City with new community center

2019-10-21T18:51:00-04:00

500 years after being banned by Spanish conquerers, the ancient pan-Mesoamerican ball game of ulama is making a comeback in Mexico City, where a new community center focused on reinvigorating indigenous cultural traditions is taking root.

Los equipos Texcoxo y Cemayan Nepanolli dan una demostración de Juego de Pelota precuauhtémico, durante las actividades de inauguración de la Escuela Comunitaria de Artes y Oficios Xochikalli. Este es el primer espacio para la práctica de este deporte. pic.twitter.com/7MbvaPxkdG
— Azcapotzalco (@AzcapotzalcoMx) March 12, 2018

A new ulama ball court measuring 30-feet by 120-feet was completed in 2018 at the new Xochikalli community center in the Azcapotzalco neighborhood of Mexico City, according to NPR. The community center is designed specifically to host and propagate a collection of pre-Hispanic traditional practices that include xilam—an Aztec martial art—Nahuatl language emersion, and ancient farming techniques. The game is also known as tlac...

32 architects and firms design social housing prototypes for an experimental community in Mexico

2019-09-04T07:00:00-04:00

INFONAVIT, the federal institute for workers housing of Mexico, is the largest mortgage lender in Latin America. Founded in 1972, the Mexico City-based institute has played a critical role for families across Mexico attempting access decent housing. The institution, along with MOS architects, has launched an experimental housing research project with the help of 32 prominent architects and firms. The project, masterplanned by MOS, aims to create housing prototypes that reflect up-to-date thinking in the realm of social housing design as well as examples of promoting a better quality of life for its inhabitants.

Aerial shot of prototype housing in the City of Apán. Image © Jamie Navarro

Image © Jamie Navarro

The low-cost housing prototypes are built within the City of Apán, in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. After being constructed, the houses are now undergoing testing and evaluation to help validate the research project's goals of equitable social housing. Participants include Mauricio...

Mexico City deploys giant murals to clean its polluted air

2019-05-08T14:18:00-04:00

A colourful mural of a 35m-tall tree in Mexico City is one of three environmentally friendly new public works made using Airlite paint, which purifies polluted air in a process similar to photosynthesis. [...] the mural aims to increase oxygen levels in one of the western hemisphere’s most polluted cities, where ozone concentration levels remain high despite government regulations on fuel and cars.

Image courtesy of Boa Mistura.

"Airlite paint chemically reacts with pollutants in the air, turning them into inert compounds," reports The Art Newspaper. "The roughly 1,000 sq. m mural should neutralise the same amount of pollution created by around 60,000 vehicles a year."

The artists responsible for painting the mural on Reforma Avenue (pictured above) are members of the Spanish art collective Boa Mistura.

A plastic pavilion dazzles in Mexico City through innovation and discourse

2019-01-16T11:56:00-05:00

Showcased during the Mextrópoli International Festival of Architecture, one of the largest festivals in Latin America with over 50,000 people in attendance, I-CONO dazzles the streets of Mexico City. Aimed at creating and sparking discussion around architecture and the city architects, students, locals, and tourists from all over come to the event. The 2018 project winners, Bianchimajer and Anna Merci, were chosen to headline the festival's Mextrópoli Pavilion structure with I-CONO. Made of 2500 plastic bottles and standing a little over 21 feet high, the project reflects on the public's interaction with architecture and the city. The public piece creates an immersive sensorial display, allowing visitors to be transformed through sound, light, shadow, and color all while standing in one of Mexico City's most famous plazas. The pavilion strives to spark thoughts and discussions of how the architecture of Mexico City can be understood and juxtaposed with a temporary public installatio...

New York Times' latest Op-Doc takes a dive into the sewage systems of Mexico City

2019-01-07T16:17:00-05:00

The New York Times' latest Op-Doc—part of their series of short, interactive, and virtual reality documentaries—profiles Julio César Cú Cámara, whose job it is to dive into the sewers and water treatment plants of Mexico City. For the past 36 years, Cámara has been a sewage diver, maintaining the sewage system's pipes and pumps, clearing them of blockages and reducing the risk of floods. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Esteban Arrangoiz, the film shows, as Arrangoiz writes, "how through his work, a human being is capable of finding beauty, pleasure and the essence of his humanity inside the detritus." Check out the film below.

Construction work on partly built Mexico City International Airport officially suspended

2019-01-04T13:32:00-05:00

Some work continued on Thursday at a partly-built $13 billion Mexico City airport that the new president is scrapping, even after the government announced construction had been halted. [...] The head of the government-run agency responsible for the project, Gerardo Ferrando, said the only construction still underway was to preserve what had already been built, such as drainage works, slabs of foundation and a partly-built tower.

NAICM aerial visualization. Rendering: Dbox.

It's unclear what should happen now with the partly built new Mexico City International Airport which, some argue, was about one-third complete. "Construction work is officially suspended on that airport, and negotiations on the early termination of the contracts has begun," said Communications and Transport Minister Javier Jimenez Espriu in a news conference this week.

Interior concept. Rendering: Dbox.

The mammoth $13 billion infrastructure project was designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants).

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

KnitCandela Image © Juan Pablo Allegre

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...

Mexican voters reject partly built $13 billion Mexico City International Airport project

2018-10-29T14:14:00-04:00

Voters in Mexico have rejected completion of partly built new airport for Mexico City, opposing it by a 70 to 29 percent margin. Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday he will respect the referendum, effectively ending the $13 billion project which is already about one-third built. “The decision taken by the citizens is democratic, rational and efficient,” Lopez Obrador said. “The people decided.”

It's looking like the end of the runway for the partly built new Mexico City International Airport designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants).

While the public vote clearly disapproved of the $13 billion megaproject that's been associated with corruption and overspending, the referendum is not without criticism due to its extremely low voter turnout.

Luxury residential home that works with Mexico City's rugged topography

2018-10-25T16:37:00-04:00

Panoramic views of the city is just one of the main highlights of this luxury residential home in Mexico City. Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos used the natural formations of terrain construct a multilayered housing unit that integrates with the surrounding environment.

Image © Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, photograph by Jaime Navarro

Constructed on a natural slope, this enabled the architects to use it to construct the entrance of the structure in a descending fashion. The stacked linear elements form a zig-zag shape that makes its way downwards through topography in various right angles. This design choice allows for the front-facing exterior to have a subtle shape that guides the eye to alternate between structural elements and native vegetation.

Image © Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, photograph by Jaime Navarro

Each level consists of rooms and spaces that fulfill various living necessities. Level 1 houses residential parking, while levels 2 through 4 house "departments" or units. Each unit...

A year after deadly 7.1 quake, an investigation into Mexico City's troubling history with failed building codes

2018-09-19T16:12:00-04:00

Several factors play into the lax code enforcements issue. Mexico City is going through a construction boom, and some local officials have been hesitant to put the brakes on such a profitable sector. Corruption is rampant [...] “There is a whole system that’s been designed to benefit everyone involved: public officials, DROs, developers,” said Gómez Durán. “They all protect each other. The citizens are left unprotected.”

One year after Mexico City's devastating 7.1-magnitude earthquake, this piece by Martha Pskowski explores how, over the last three decades, the city's engineers, politicians, and builders have repeatedly failed to regulate stricter building codes — which often has deadly consequences.

Mexico City International Airport project's future now relies on public vote

2018-08-22T14:28:00-04:00

Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday he would let voters decide whether to continue construction of Mexico City’s new airport, throwing into doubt the country’s biggest public-works project and billions in investment and debt. The airpot, designed in part by U.K. architect Norman Foster, is about one-third complete. About $5.2 billion has been spent on the infrastructure project, the biggest of the administration of current President Enrique Peña Nieto.

After softening his original stance on cancelling the new Mexico City International Airport, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has now opened up the project's fate to the public. The partially built infrastructure project by Foster + Partners and FR-EE now hangs in the balance of public voters.

Mexican president-elect softens his opposition to $13 billion airport project

2018-07-09T15:16:00-04:00

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s next president, is no longer seeking an immediate suspension of Mexico City’s new $13 billion airport, according to a member of his economic transition team. Abel Hibert, who attended a planning meeting with Lopez Obrador and about 100 aides from the transition team on Tuesday evening, said it was clear that there’ll be no immediate demand to President Enrique Pena Nieto to suspend construction of the airport, at least until a review of the contracts.

Canceling the new Mexico City International Airport project due to alleged corruption and wasteful spending was one of the campaign promises of socialist (then) candidate, and now president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The tone appears to have softened now to not completely alienate investors, and an AMLO aide laid our three possibilities: "Auctioning the airport to the private sector, moving it to an alternative site (which would mean losses on construction that’s already happened), or going ahead with the current plan," Bloomberg reports.

A conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants) had won the international architectural competition in 2014 for what might become one of the world's largest airports with (up to) six runways and a 560,000-square-meter terminal.

Construction starts for Zaha Hadid Architects' Bora Residential Tower in Mexico City

2017-11-09T14:25:00-05:00

Construction is underway for the upcoming Bora Residential Tower, which is set to be the tallest building of its kind in Mexico City. Client Nemesis Capital commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects to design the tower back in 2015.

Located in the growing Santa Fe business district near the 28-hectare La Mexicana park, the 50-floor tower will include 220 apartment units of various sizes for families, professionals, and retirees. Each apartment is designed to allow natural light and ventilation, ensure privacy, and offer panoramic views. Units are also surrounded by balconies so that residents can enjoy the local temperate climate.

Lobby of the Bora Residential Tower in Mexico City by Zaha Hadid Architects. Rendering: LabTop.

Bora Residential Tower in Mexico City by Zaha Hadid Architects. Rendering: LabTop.

The tower tapers at its base and features “swirling” canopies under which recreational and leisure activities can take place. ZHA optimized flexibility and ductility in their design, to be...

What makes Mexico City so vulnerable to earthquakes?

2017-09-21T11:51:00-04:00

Yesterday, Mexico City was struck by a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake. As of today, over 200 people have been reported dead as rescuers continue their efforts to recover those still trapped in the rubble. Dozens of buildings in and around the city were reduced to rubble and many more, severely damaged. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone, including a primary school where 25 bodies have since been recovered.

The temblor is the deadliest the country's capital has seen since a 1985 earthquake on the same date, exactly 32 years prior, killed thousands. Mexico sits at the boundary of three fault lines—a very active seismic zone that makes the area extremely vulnerable to earthquakes of high magnitude that are capable of destroying whole buildings and ripping façades off others. Just 12 days before, the country endured its second-largest earthquake in history when an 8.1-magnitude shake hit the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Mexico City, i...

Closer look: FR-EE's Hyperloop One Mexico City-Guadalajara route proposal

2017-09-18T19:43:00-04:00

Out of over 2,600 entries, a multi-disciplinary consortium led by Fernando Romero / FR-EE was recently announced as one of the 10 winning teams in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge with the proposal “Mexloop”, the 330-mile Mexico-Guadalajara route. The Mexloop project builds on Mexico's ambitious $600 billion public works investment under the National Infrastructure Program.

The team submitted concepts for Mexloop's inter-modal station designs and locations, route infrastructure, public space, the pods, and logistics. Aiming to alleviate traffic in one of the world's most congested cities, Mexloop will connect Central Mexico’s major population, cultural, industrial, and manufacturing centers into one new ‘Megalopolis’ of 42 million people that is projected to grow to 60 million by 2050, the Mexloop team describes.

Image © FR-EE.

The Mexloop corridor will reduce travel time between Mexico City and Guadalajara to 38 minutes, at a spe...

History of the Present: Mexico City

2017-02-17T15:51:00-05:00

An unpopular president, a myth-making architect, and a multibillionaire tycoon are building an oversize airport in a nature preserve. Can they make Mexico great again?

The progressive capital of Mexico has a long history of massive infrastructure projects — megaproyectos — with egalitarian aims. Daniel Brook looks at the social, political, and environmental issues surrounding the latest — a $13bn new airport rising on a sinking lakebed. This article is part of Places' ongoing series, History of the Present, on global cities in transition.

Javier Senosiain's low-income "bio-architecture" housing proposal

2016-10-18T14:26:00-04:00

Forming a closer, more harmonious bond between humanity and nature is the underlying goal of Javier Senosiain's organic or so-called "bio-architecture." His buildings often take the shape of organic forms--in one case, mythic serpent Quetzalcoatl--while simultaneously harvesting rainwater and providing natural shade and ventilation, among other attributes. The Mexican architect and professor at UNAM has a retrospective exhibition at The Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City displaying his buildings, including a proposed low-income housing complex which breaks away from the cram'em'in monolithic housing milleu and instead creates a walkable, livable village. Check out this CCTV-America video profiling Senosiain and his work:

Uber takes to the skies with a new advertising strategy in Mexico DF

2016-10-17T18:45:00-04:00

Mexico City is notorious for its gridlock (and the smog it produces). The ride-sharing platform Uber has taken advantage of this captive audience with an unusual advertising medium: drones.

As reported by Bloomberg, Uber has sent off a fleet of sign-bearing drones to hover over windshields. “Driving by yourself?” asks one in Spanish. “That’s why you can never see the volcanoes.”

Mexico City represents Uber’s biggest market, so the unique (and aggressive) advertising strategy makes some sense. No word yet on any drone-provoked fender benders.

For more on Uber and its influence on cities, follow these links:

How one architect is working to fix Mexico City's faulty water supply infrastructure

2016-03-23T18:42:00-04:00

'Mexico City’s water system goes against its own functional essence. The city is dehydrating itself. We’re mixing our water with poisonous waste and then pumping it out through a complex network of pipes. Just like what happens when a human is dehydrated, Mexico City has diarrhea.' — Elias Cattan

"In a mega-metropolis with a deep history of corrupt leaders and state-sanctioned misinformation, [architect Elias Cattan of Taller 13] believes awareness is the first step. That’s why he’s part of a growing movement of environmental scientists, activists, designers and engineers determined to redesign Mexico City’s water supply management while educating its 9 million residents in the process."

More related to public health issues on Archinect:

EPA study finds no evidence that fracking has lead to polluted drinking water

Should the children of Flint be resettled?

Dispatch from Flint: How architects can help, on Archinect Sessions #54

One CEO's plan to supply water to drought-stricken CA cities, and obviously profit from it

A return to Mexico City's lacustrine origins

2015-11-16T11:27:00-05:00

Basically, instead of allowing this anarchic development to continue growing over the bed of the lake – which is very expensive, because the quality of the soil is very bad – we wanted to conduct the growth of the city around the lake area, and to recover a huge natural feature that belongs to everyone, which will change the climate of the city.

Shumi Bose learns from Alberto Kalach (of Taller de Arquitectura X), why the solution to the capital’s future growth may be found in embracing a pre-Hispanic, lacustrine form of urbanism.

To learn more about the "The hydrological balance of the city", read this weeklong report (also from the Guardian) which reveals "the triumphs of the past, the current battles, and the crisis looming in the future".

Listen to highlights from Enrique Norten's interview, winner of the 2015 Neutra Award

2015-11-03T14:55:00-05:00

Somewhere along the lines of recent years, I became the unofficial interviewer for the semiannual Neutra Award, offered by Cal Poly Pomona to highly regarded master architects in Neutra's vein. In the past, it has been awarded to Tadao Ando, Michael Rotondi and now, Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos.

The minute I decided to talk to Enrique Norten about modern times and its architecture vis a vis Neutra’s VDL House, the conversation unfolded by itself and modernism in presence. I should add, of course, Mr. Norten, staying in the house as Cal Poly Pomona’s guest, feeling its energy, its humble experimental brilliance, its importance to architecture and, as an anecdotal moment, not missing a second of the much stuffier Green & Green House where he has also stayed in the past.

We became friends and agreed what started as modern architecture still continues globally in its many iterations. How can it not? We agreed, we are all moderns, even if we deny, our ancestors lived differently.

...

Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos, 2015 recipient of the Richard Neutra Award, in conversation with Orhan Ayyüce

2015-10-26T21:01:00-04:00

In the dappled afternoon sunshine of the VDL House’s backyard in Silver Lake, senior Archinect Editor Orhan Ayyuce sat down with Enrique Norten, winner of this year’s Richard J. Neutra Award for Professional Excellence, to talk about modernism’s legacy and evolution since the mid-20th century. The Award, issued by California State Polytechnic University’s Department of Architecture, is awarded to architects that fulfill Richard Neutra’s ideal of creating new environments for living, and often encourage interdisciplinary collaborations within the profession. Norten was in town for the award ceremony tonight at Cal Poly Pomona.

Norten’s Mexico City and New York-based firm, TEN Arquitectos, has completed over fifty projects worldwide in its 28-year span, for a variety of architectural programs that are often large enough to operate at an urban scale. The firm’s works include Guadalajara’s Guggenheim Museum, a branch of the New York Public Library, the redesign of Rutgers University Col...