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 ...

OMA's new pedestrian bridge aims to lead the Mexican city of Jojutla on a path to the future

2021-09-23T19:48:00-04:00

Four years removed from one of the worst natural disasters in Mexico’s history, one small city in the state of Morelos is ready to bridge the chasm between past tragedy and future optimism thanks to the efforts of one New York firm.

Image courtesy of OMA New York

OMA has announced that it will be developing a new pedestrian bridge for the city of Jojutla to coincide with the anniversary of the devastating 2017 earthquake that left much of the city in shambles, and many of its residents to question the viability of the community long term.

Image courtesy of OMA New York

The project is the latest addition to OMA’s ongoing public space and resiliency push that includes a comprehensive post-Hurricane Sandy water use strategy for Hoboken, New Jersey, and the 11th Street Bridge Park development in Washington, DC.

Image courtesy of OMA New York/CCA, Model and Photography by CCA

The new bridge represents OMA New York’s contribution to the region’s ambitious recovery effort. Jojutla has beco...

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...

Arquine Prepares For Their 7th Annual MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival

2020-02-20T13:13:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by Arquine

Update: The festival has been rescheduled to Sept 5th - Sept 7th 2020

The seventh edition of the MEXTRÓPOLI Festival of Architecture and City will address an unavoidable issue on the urban planning and architecture agenda: the climate crisis.

If a few years ago we asked ourselves in MEXTRÓPOLI about the possibilities of the future as a capacity of political imagination, today it seems that the question is reduced to the possibility of any future. It seems alarmist. Maybe it is. But we must not forget that behind the "I want you to panic" approach of Greta Thurnberg, there is still a call of hope: I want you to act.

Densification, water, and population are factors that are also important when thinking about the present and future of our cities, especially under the risky context in regards to the climatic conditions of the planet. For this reason, the MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival will reflect on a fundamental theme that will allow us...

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...

600 years of Mexican architecture through the eyes of Candida Höfer

2019-02-08T16:09:00-05:00

German-based photographer Candida Höfer has a long list of mesmerizing photographs and accolades. Her works primarily focus on capturing moments within empty social spaces and vacant public interiors. Through these projects, she focuses on exposing and highlighting "the social psychology of architecture". Recognized for her breathtaking large-format photos, Höfer's blend of photographic technicality and artistry are apparent in her most recent series, In Mexico.

Hospicio Cabañas Capilla Tolsá from Daniel Buren work in situ Guadalajara I 2015 © Candida Höfer, Köln / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York

In her series, images were taken during the course of her stay in Mexico while participating in a cultural exchange in 2015. According to N...

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.

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...

She may favor Brutalist forms...

2013-05-15T11:37:00-04:00

the 40-year-old architect has emerged as one of the country’s major creative voices, building an eclectic portfolio of work that includes a 10,000-square-foot neo-Brutalist palazzo, the master plan for an art-filled botanical garden and a spiritual refuge in the Jalisco Mountains. The projects vary wildly in attitude and style

Nicolai Ouroussoff profiled the Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, for the NYT, T Magazine "Hot Summer" travel edition.

A journalist remembers Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez

2013-05-07T13:33:00-04:00

Architecture and journalism, like politics, sometimes make strange bedfellows.

"Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, the great Mexican builder who died April 16 at age 94, was responsible for many of the monumental public works that defined the Modernist look and aspirations of his country in the post-World War II era. Among his projects were the stunning Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec Park, the Azteca stadium, the Basilica de Guadalupe (all in Mexico City), the Museo Amparo in Puebla and the Centro Cultural de Tijuana."

Elena Poniatowska interview in La Jornada.