Tatiana Bilbao: Addressing poverty is the context of Mexican architects – Domus

Not only is the studio working extensively on a global portfolio of projects, Tatiana Bilbao is also a visiting professor at Yale she has also taught at Harvard, Columbia and Rice and the studio has exhibitions (not currently open to the public) of their work at the Louisiana in Denmark (opened in October 2019) and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (due to open in October 2020). While working abroad may be partly in response to commercial pressures, it is certainly also part of a more complex idea of cultural interchange in architecture today. There can be no doubt that a developed international recognition can help professional status in Mexico, but it must also be true that her deep regional understanding of a different set of issues in her immediate context gives her a voice and well-grounded credibility in that international scene.

Speaking to Tatiana Bilbao, there is a sense of pride in being a Mexican architect, and the professional solidarity that she enjoys with her contemporaries such as Frida Escobedo, Fernando Romero, Michael Rojkind, and a strong connection to the countrys art community her first project was for the artist Gabriel Orozco. It is a very knitted together community, she says, because the formal institutions dont help. I have the impression that this self-constructed community is reinforced by a sense of belonging to an extraordinary lineage of Mexican architects, confirming the cultural role and status of architects in Mexico, as well as maintaining strong discourse on the purpose and the role of architecture in changing their country. Few countries can boast such an important modernist heritage with Luis Barragn, Flix Candela, Pedro Ramrez Vzquez, Ricardo Legorreta, Francisco J. Serrano, Jos Villagrn Garca, Juan OGorman, Mario Pani, Enrique del Moral, Agustn Hernndez Navarro, Teodoro Gonzlez de Len, Abraham Zabludovsky, to name just a few. Boosted by the patronage of the government in the 1940s and 1950s as they sought to build an image of modernity, these architects developed a local modernism rooted in the movements universal social ambitions and in response to the realities of their surrounding context. The lineage has continued through to contemporary masters such as Alberto Kalach and Enrique Norten and is alive today in this new, younger generation despite the different political terrain in which they operate.

Excerpt from:
Tatiana Bilbao: Addressing poverty is the context of Mexican architects - Domus