Design Week 2024. I have come to Mexico City for 2 main reasons (well 3 counting my latest but I digress): Zona Maco and Design Week. Being a complete architectural nerd, the idea of transforming a house in a month and having a series of architects design the separate spaces within seemed absolutely genius. There are these wonderful moments in life where humans can somehow unite and coordinate- Design House is one of them.
Even for those who have no design training, it’s natural for us to understand beauty. That kind of wonder is innate- we cannot control what we find wondrous. With intention, anything can happen.
There’s a wonderful play of space and levels in this house. It’s too bad they didn’t have a plan of it. You enter at the street level, where the garage is, but take the stairs (to the left of the photo above past the archway) to enter the house on it’s mid level, though because of this garden, it seems like the ground floor…
… but explore a bit more and that garden is actually a roof and what a space is shelters below.
A beautiful two story tall room, glass enclosed with no mullions- a wonderful structural approach. So indeed, rather than a 3 level home, this is actually a complex that extends another 2 stories. This is good fodder for me to draw a plan next time when I can’t seem to find one on site.
This transitional hallway filled with orchids highlights the botanist nature of the city. This space already filled with light is somehow made brighter with the hanging plants- as if further elevating it’s levity.
Design Week 2024 is very much a (ambitious and wonderfully executed) industry event and for that, it is a worthy avenue to anyone interested in exploring the wealth of materials and ideas applied to space.
This listening room was perhaps my favorite room, naturally with a mini dj booth. There’s a bit of conviviality amongst all the serious refinement that brings a smile: speakers built perfectly into the wall, contiguous wall to ceiling to wall ambient lighting, the touch of a fern green and the richness from the wood framing. The bathroom attached (a peek of it into the right of the above photo) takes one step deeper in this luxuriance with a study of saturated dark color and materials.
My vote for best technology was the ceiling lighting in this exhibit by Barrisol. They had it in a main room of this installation and even in the corner the quality of the light caught my eye. The representative was English speaking and started a conversation with me without my prompt as she noticed my odd interest in the corner. The stretch textile with integrated tiny lights offered a diffused but very natural light across the entirety of a room. Would love to see this in more working spaces especially.
The bathrooms were all exceptional, if not slightly erring on cock-eyed, but as studies go- certainly conversation starters for how transformative we can turn any space into. And certainly, no detail left unturned.
As I travel by architecture more than anything, the ride through this neighborhood revealed an entire part of Mexico City I would have never imagined- massive single family mansions, so private, secluded, like a Beverly Hills of Mexico City. This city continues to surprise me, encouraging me to keep pushing into all the varying layers time after time. It will soon to be one of my most visited cities next to NYC, Taipei, London and Paris and it certainly deserves this status.
Address: Parque Vía Reforma 2056, Lomas de Chapultepec, Miguel Hidalgo, 11950 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: Design Week Mexico
ofallthespaces 