Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena and his firm ELEMENTAL S.A have been announced as the project leads to deliver the new home of the School of Architecture, Art and Design (EAAD) to the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Mexico.

The scope of the new Classrooms 10 project entails a new building at the Avenida Junco de la Vega that will house the school’s Architecture, Design, Digital Art, and Urbanism programs, all of which are currently spread throughout multiple facilities at its Monterrey flagship campus. The university also operates 21 satellite campuses across Mexico, though no plans appear to be in development for any of their locations. 

Aravena visited the campus in late August to workshop the idea with students and faculty at the university. Dean Rodolfo Barragán says the project will leave “a place with urban significance” that integrates ITESM’s presence with Monterrey’s Central Park while “highlighting and giving meaning to the activities that will be appropriate in a first phase for the EAAD and in subsequent phases to future needs of the campus.”

Aravena himself added: “We have experience in building for educational institutions. We have done projects in Chile and the United States. It is a world that is familiar to us. [...] I think we have a certain idea in which direction we are going to move.”

“The idea that a community of study needs to create and transfer knowledge for that meaning or purpose, (that's where) architecture can contribute,” he continued, speaking to the project's collaborative process.

A schedule for the project's construction has not been released at this time.