Youth in Mexican architecture
Who will shape the image of cities over the next few years? Who will build the airports, museums and homes of the second half of the 21st century in Mexico? In the exhibition "21 Young Mexican Architects" at the National Museum of Architecture will find the answer. Inspired by visions of the future and in the footsteps of the past, these offices are defining the aesthetics of tomorrow's architecture.
More than a "divine treasure", youth in Mexico is a source of renewal. The young architects have grown up in a complex national panorama, in which situations are interweave as a great demand for spaces, a high competition, a fierce real estate market and a devalued architectural tradition. This is coupled with the demands of society, ranging from the basic necessities of the less favoured sectors, to the tastes and whims of a privileged group.
The new generation of architects questions the old foundations on which architectural projects were carried out, new challenges are proposed, employ innovative technology and respond to current situations through space. And so concepts like participatory architecture or material recycling are already part of their vocabulary.
A sample of the above is the exhibition "21 Young Mexican Architects" at the National Museum of Architecture. This is a sample that was convened 21 offices of young Mexican architects from different regions of the Mexican Republic, with the intention of making known their work and identify the reasons and values of social, political, urban and Architectural that give meaning to his works, an initial question posed by the architects curators of the show Lucía Zesati, Gustavo López Padilla and Honorato Carrasco.
For a year and a half they took the task of taking a tour of the works that have been done in recent times to select the 21 offices of architects whose teams do not override the 45 years, young in architecture if it is considered that the race lasts At least five years, and that some works take years to complete. For this reason, although his work is reduced, his potential has been evident and is visible in this sample.
The exhibition includes in total 105 sheets, 21 models and 21 videos. The selection criterion was based on the representation of different regions of the Mexican Republic and in that they showed diverse ways of understanding contemporary architecture, incorporating experiences of the public and private sector, urban design projects, Architectural and landscape.
"Three years ago the first edition of the sample was made. From then to today we wanted to investigate how this architecture has changed and we find very diverse projects: recreation spaces, skate rinks, a library inside a drainage tube, reuse of spaces, interventions, among others " Comments the architect Lucía Zesati.
On the other hand, the architect Gustavo López said that it is necessary to "hear what they have to say, what their concerns, their values, all interpreted through architecture. It is a show that represents what they feel, what they aspire in social, political and cultural terms and is reflected by their work. "
Each office presented for the exhibition two works representative of their works, which were reflected in five sheets. Two films for each one of the works, in which the urban conditions were shown, compositional and formal qualities of the same; and a fifth sheet with sketches that express the intentions and the conceptual criteria. To complement the exhibition of the works, each office contributed a model of one of the two work participants and a short video.
It is, in short, the young promises of architecture that through its innovating works rethink the relations between culture, environment, space and society. The architects that appear in this exhibition show that the youngest professionals are able to offer diversity, originality, beauty, quality and integrity. This generational portrait can become a point of reference, a source of inspiration and a look into the future.