The architectural language of any country suggests the cultural evolution of its community through the kinds of projects that get built and the styles and techniques employed in the execution. These projects speak to the issues a community faces while also highlighting their aspirations. Over the years, Mexican architecture, design, and art have reflected the diverse country's vibrant culture and natural landscape. The architecture has drawn on the rich history not only of traditional techniques and indigenous knowledge but also the rich modernist architecture of the country. Traditional forms like courtyards and materials, blended with modern sensibilities of clean lines and geometric shapes, have characterised the contemporary architecture of the Latin American country. From brutalist residences to sensitive, local solutions to community well-being to a proliferation of and understanding toward the benefits of adaptive reuse projects, STIR explores Mexican architecture that was the best of 2023, highlighting the attention to detail, craftsmanship, and care towards local contexts.

Residences:

1. Casa Ederlezi by Práctica Arquitectura

The residential design for Casa Ederlezi draws inspiration from the vibrant colours found in the Balkans, with a red-hued façade and monolithic blocks, also reminiscent of famed Mexican architect, Luis Barragan. Conceptualised on a plot measuring only five by 20 metres, the home seamlessly integrates landscaping within its compact volume. Generating a pleasant indoor-outdoor experience with a series of interconnecting gardens that run through the entire length of the property, the home is meant to invoke a sense of connectedness for its residents. Strict conservation guidelines imposed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History propelled the architects, Practica Arquitectura, to blend classic elements of northwestern Mexican architecture such as the proportions of the façade’s openings with abstract contemporary features. Prioritising functionality and cost-effectiveness, the project is based on a deep respect for and dialogue with its local context. As a lead architect of the studio states, “The project could be a reference for affordable urban development. In this sense, it has the potential to become an urban catalyst in one of the oldest areas of Monterrey.”

2. Coordenada House by Andrés & José

Originally built in the 1920s, the restoration of the Coordenada House showcases another nuanced approach to contextuality in design. The challenge for the design was creating a contemporary residence while honouring the building's history. This involved a thoughtful approach to seamlessly integrate traditional and new design elements by carefully considering local conditions and architectural styles. The designers chose to create spaces that emphasised the integration of the indoor and outdoor, with flexible domestic spaces. An internal garden became the focal point of the inward-looking residence. As a consequence, the interior spaces are bathed in filtered natural light and offer a serene retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city. With the interior design blending tradition and modernity through its detailing, the restoration of the Coordena House exhibits a true balance between historical relevance and contemporary living. It establishes a connection between the people, the spaces, and the cities they inhabit while recognising the growing need to be respectful of old structures and championing a sustainable lifestyle.

3. Casa en los Cocos by Ludwig Godefroy

Mexico-based architect Ludwig Godefroy’s designs are often characterised by a brutalist, rustic aesthetic. His fortress-like concrete architecture favours the integration of essential elements and spaces over ornamentation or the addition of technological provisions. Designed for simple living, the French architect’s recent residential project in Yucatán, Casa en los Cocos, is a rustic haven that resembles the clefts and crannies of nature. Located on a narrow plot measuring 70 metres by eight metres, the house is conceived of as fragmented pavilions that are inspired by pre-Hispanic architecture. These pavilions, stationed at calculated distances from each other, hold open-to-sky courtyards in between. A perennial water stream leads visitors through the residence. Casa en los Cocos remits the conventions followed for residential design with different private and semi-private spaces that are not enclosed as is typical. Instead they are separated from each other by concordant walls. An absence of structured fillings, manifesting in the form of structural voids, serves as vestibular spaces sitting adjacent to the pavilions. By defying the integration of typically found elements and spaces within the residence, the project manages to draw focus to the elemental features and their beauty, while also inspiring a simple life.

Hospitality:

4. Cigno Hotel Boutique by Roger González

The boutique hotel Cigno was the result of the restoration of a century-old mansion house by architect Roger González. Located in the historic centre of Merida, the hospitality design retains various original features of the structure and utilises archaic craftsmanship methods dating back several centuries. For instance, the restored neoclassical facade is a nod to the distinct character of the town, and the more emblematic features in the building, such as cornices, high ceilings, Corinthian-style columns, ornamented capitals, ceiling mouldings, cement tiled floors and mosaic tiled floors have been retained. An ancient technique called chukum, which involves working with stucco in a manner similar to that used in Mayan pyramids grants the structure an appearance of rustic honesty. The hotel comprises ten rooms and suites, all of which are characterised by pale-hued walls, wooden beams, and blue-tinted tile floors decorated with the cannage motif. The terracotta hues, juxtaposed against Ticul stone from the Opichén region, imbue the interiors with the aura apparent in tropical woods. With murals and decorations referencing past civilisations, and a façade design ascribing to the extant features typical in the city, the project honours the many histories of the place it is located in, giving these a new meaning.

5. Hotel Hercules by GOMA

The design for the Hotel Hercules by GOMA is also an adaptive reuse exercise, converting a 200-year-old textile factory into a luxury property. It quaintly marries past and present, with the architects choosing to keep many elements of the former industrial building intact in their redesign. The heritage establishment allows visitors to immerse themselves in the rich history of Queretaro, a city with several Spanish colonial edifices. Integrating their design with the landscape, the architects incorporated a semi-open central pavilion, surrounded by vegetation and water elements which invites the visitor to disconnect themselves from the outside world. “We think that the luxury that Mexican architecture has is the relationship with the outdoor spaces. The hotel is meant to be a shelter that invites guests to experience and live among industrial and natural environments,” the team at GOMA says of their design and the project’s ties to its Mexican roots. Through subtle, dynamic interventions that adapt to the pre-existing structure, the hotel invites visitors to enter the natural atmosphere of the famed factory, and indulge in an experience of renewal and relaxation.

6. Valle San Nicolás - Clubhouse by Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos

A low circular form resting at the edge of a sprawling waterbody houses the Valle San Nicolás – Clubhouse. Lying on the outskirts of Valle de Bravo, a municipality located on Lake Avándaro, the project was conceived by Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos to serve as a space for visitors to unwind within a 370-hectare residential development. Brimming with serenity and awe, the Valle San Nicolás - Clubhouse as well as the shimmering lake are set at the lowest point of the development’s masterplan. The aim was to provide its residents with an enhanced connection, and enjoyment of the natural landscape that ensconces it. The contextual architecture's lyrical form claims to be a built manifesto of careful, slow design, where nature and sustainable architecture integrate to create a dazzling-built chorus supported by repeated notes of warm wooden beams with the sunlight filtering through. The symmetric form and its seemingly isolated setting engender a sense of serenity. Moreover, the use of cross-laminated and sustainably sourced timber speak to its preoccupation with sustainability, while not compromising on a holistic experience for visitors.

Offices:

7. FabLab by Roth Architecture

Roth Architecture, an architecture studio based out of Tulum, is an offshoot of AZULIK, a brand that offers a range of experiences in the realms of art, architecture, fashion, hospitality, gastronomy, wellness, and more, with the intent of ‘elevating human vision and evolution.’ Their new office space, FabLab is located in the AZULIK City of Arts, a creative venture housed in the heart of the Mayan jungle. The studio’s driving principles are finding original and eco-centric solutions to quotidian needs, and FabLab is built to inhabit experiments and innovations in this pursuit. As the studio elaborates, “The primary purpose of this space is to facilitate the experimentation and creation of materials and systems that contribute to the development of our architectural concepts. We believe that curiosity and critical thinking are expressed in the way we create." With bulbous, organic forms that feature windows designed to replicate insect wings, this creativity and concern with context shine through. The carefully considered design is meant to dialogue with its lush surroundings in the middle of a rainforest. Driven by innovative ideas and the intent of delivering results that are sustainable, FabLab serves as a creative space where technology and craftsmanship can meet.

8. CR Offices by LC Arquitectura

Another example of restorative architecture on this list is the design for an office space by LC Arquitectura. A former residence, overtaken by nature and falling into disrepair was converted by the designers into a contemporary office, with sleek detailing, while restoring the structure to its original form. From the start, the design team resolved to proceed with a solution that would conserve the soul of the existing residential building. Maintaining a connection to the natural elements, glass has been used extensively, both on the building’s façade design and as part of the interior. This allows ample natural light to fill the spaces, providing the company’s employees a welcome contrast to the relatively confined and drab environment of their previous office. An internal courtyard design provides a spiritual core for the structure with a reflecting pool of water meant to aid in cooling and refreshing air throughout the office interiors. Untreated concrete walls, along with the original structure’s brick masonry complement the sleek interior design. Revelling in the eclectic but measured marriage of tradition and contemporaneity, through clever use of ornament and materiality, CR Offices offers food for thought on the intent and intrusiveness of adaptive reuse, creating an office design that is intimate yet open, welcoming both daily users and visitors to become part of the stories etched into its walls.

Community-based:

9. Kithara Music kiosk by TO Arquitectura

While residences, commercial structures and hospitality spaces address the aspirations of a community, public architecture serves as a reminder of a society’s pressing needs. With the promise of improving present conditions, architecture plays a crucial role in not only providing considered solutions to a community’s problems but also bringing people together. A simple barrel-vaulted structure for instance, an initiative of Kithara Project, a non-profit organisation promoting equitable access to the guitar in a sustainable way to communities in the US and Mexico, provides a space for the community to come together. The 60 sqm space—a result of a collaboration between the Mexican studio, guitar students of the Kithara Project, and the community—is utilised for theatre presentation, choir concerts, and social meetings in addition to hosting guitar teaching and practising classes. Located around cramped living quarters in Mexico's Yuguellto neighbourhood, the Kithara music kiosk stands distinctly from its neighbours. It sits within a little garden that the community has planted with endemic vegetation. The barrel vault shape was chosen by all stakeholders involved for ease of rainwater collection while a mezzanine level was integrated to introduce multi-functionality in the program. The materials are all local: vaulted form and walls have recycled donated masonry whereas the wood inside is repurposed. The kiosk shows the result of collaboration with community in creating a sensitive architecture that is beneficial for all.

10. Centro de Cultura Ambiental Chapultepec by ERRE Q ERRE arquitectura y urbanismo

A pavilion clad in black stone to echo the volcanic landscapes of Pedregal, serves as a landmark bridging Mexico City’s Bosque de Chapultepec park to the nearby lakeshore. The project, titled Centro de Cultura Ambiental Chapultepec, is the heart of the sprawling landscape design venture, creating whirling impressions on the park’s terrain. As a new ecological node that brings together culture, landscape, and architecture under its wing, the project has been subtly absorbed into the area’s natural setting, its gentle form hugging the sloped topography of the park. The 90,000 sqm Bosque de Chapultepec is said to be one of the capital’s proverbial "lungs," enriching its urban sphere, and the lives of its residents. And within it, the Centro de Cultura Ambiental Chapultepec, serves as an open public space that fosters interaction while also offering a venue to host exhibitions, events, and other activities that marry culture and ecology to promote their visibility in the city. There is a distinctly contemporary architectural flair that pervades the design from any angle, maintaining its identity as a marker of the changes occurring in Mexico City at present. As the man-made heart of the city's most important urban forest, this low-lying addition to a former expanse of bare concrete highlights the need to regreen cities, in a bid to address climate change and degrading urban living conditions, through the creation of biodiverse pockets that breathe new life into them.

11. La Laguna by PRODUCTORA

An adaptive reuse project undertaken by PRODUCTORA, a Mexico-based architectural practice converts an abandoned textile factory in Mexico City into a cultural centre. The project is located in a neighbourhood that was slated for redevelopment, with the scheme involving the densification of the area thus leading to an increase in capital gains. Instead, the proposal for La Laguna aimed to become a generator of a deeper transformation of the neighbourhood, by creating a space for independent, creative trades to flourish in the city centre. Drawing on the history and memories of the factory, the architects decided to reactivate the interior spaces without altering the industrial architecture. Businesses based nearby were offered spaces within the factory. These included two architecture studios (including PRODUCTORA’s office), a gallery, a textile workshop, LIGA, an organisation that promotes Latin American architecture, a bookshop, a school, Mubi’s main Mexican office, and a new project of artist residences. The presence of these practices was envisioned as instrumental in generating an active community and bolstering solidarity through community-oriented events.

In the last year, two Mexican architects were awarded prestigious architecture and design awards. Frida Escobedo and Gabriela Carrillo won the Charlotte Perriand award and the Royal Academy Dorfman Award respectively. These architectural awards, that focus on new ideas, and the future potential of architecture showcase a certain shift, a slow shift away from the West and Western convention to considering the potential of ‘the other’. By signalling a shift towards passive design, traditional systems of knowledge and direct community action, it highlights the potential evolution of design to systems of care.

STIRred 2023 wraps up the year with compilations of the best in architecture, art, and design from STIR. Did your favourites make the list? Tell us in the comments!