A GAGGLE OF ARCHITECTS

I have been meeting some incredible architects but, in the words of Roisin Murphy, it's never enough. Inevitably some slip through the net. So here's a round up of architects from different countries that I have not had a chance to meet in person for whatever reason.

Argentina
Lucio Morini, based in Cordoba. (new studios, below)


Chile
Beals Lyon
Grupo Talca

Colombia
Paisajes Emergentes
A landscape and architecture office working from Medellin. (new project, top)
plan b Arquitectos
Orquideorama project (below) by plan B and JPRCR (J. Paul Restrepo and Camilo Restrepo), also based in Medellin.

Grenada
COCOA - Caribbean Office of Co-Operative Architecture

Mexico
Tatiana Bilbao
Great portfolio of work including Estudio Explanada, 2008 (below)

A BRIEF ARCHI-TOUR OF MEXICO CITY

...by artists Francisca Rivero-Lake, Carla Verea and Luciano Matus, with Simon Fujiwara, Ingar Dragset and Darin Klein.
The studios of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, with cactus fence.




Heading down to the modern university campus in the south of Mexico City.


A pictorial guide to how Mexico City has developed over the years, over Mescal at Los Danzantes.

A drink stop at El Mayor during a walk through the colonial centre.
The view from the Torre Latinamericana.

And Luciano's late night tour.

AT HOME WITH CARLA AND FRANCISCA

Artists Carla Verea and Francisca Rivero-Lake were my hosts and guides to Mexico City. They work together and individually on projects that often have a strong relationship to architecture and space. Carla's photography of Guatemalan bodyguards has been exhibited internationally, and her recent commission of Barragan's Mexico City apartment buildings is part of the current Barragan show. Francisca's site-specific sound art project, Sound Oasis / Oasis Sonoro, is created in response to urban spaces and situations.



Guatemalan bodyguards

Inside Carla's photography studio

LUCIANO MATUS

Artist Luciano Matus was trained as an architect and has been producing work that reveals the possibilities of spaces. He has a major installation planned for Mexico City at the end of 2009, and has also been commissioned to design his first house. The photos are from his publication that documents a recent project that involved interventions in historical buildings and public spaces in Antigua, Guatemala; Cartagena de Indias, Colombia; Lima and Cusco, Peru; and in the Jesuit missions of Paraguay.

JOSE CASTILLO AND SAIDEE SPRINGALL / ARQUITECTURA 911SC

Jose and Saidee run Arquitectura 911sc, an architecture practice that is leading the field in Mexico on urban projects. The 20-strong practice is currently developing two large transportation projects for the Federal District Government and the State of Mexico, introducing BRTs (Bus Rapid Transport) to new stretches of Mexico City in 2009. These are the 'Eje Central' running 12km North / South through the centre of Mexico City, and an 18km route that heads east from the airport into the neighbourhoods of Neza and Chimalhuacan. The latter reaches a population of 2 million people that previously have not had access to public transport. A further urban project is for a streetscape and urban renewal in Tlalpan.

Jose has also been responsible for curating exhibitions on Mexico's contemporary architects, including the AIA's Mexico City Dialogues exhibition in 2005.

CLIMBING WALL

A new residential building by Isaac Broid in Candesa, with metal facade by Ariel Rojo.

RENATA BECERRIL AND FRIENDS

Curator of the 'mAxico - Architectures from Mexico' exhibition at the London Festival of Architecture 2008, Renata Becerril arranged an evening with some young architects at Covadonga in La Roma. She is about to start as a curator at the Franz Mayer Museum, bringing contemporary design and architecture shows to Mexico City.

Product designer Ariel Rojo, with Avril Daniel, presented me with his 'Saving Pig' lamp. He has just collaborated with architect Isaac Broid to design a facade for a new residential building.


Rocker-turned-architect Michel Rojkind shows me new projects under construction on his iPhone.

Lorenzo Álvarez (far left) has just set up his practice in the Torre Latinoamericana, designed by his grandfather, Augusto Harold Álvarez.