Architecture exhibitions usually display completed buildings in pristine photographs. In our exhibit in the Achitektur Galerie Berlin we only exhibited pictures of the building process depicting not only images of the overall process within its social context but photographs of its details.
Architects are accustomed to drawing details that either conform to their own pristine visions, building regulations, or a manufacturer’s disposition. The photographs, supplemented by a unique spatial intervention, address the topic of collaboration within the architecture and construction realms. We shipped recycled roughhewn timber used in Mexican concrete construction, shipped it to Berlin, and built a structure that visitors could walk through. The roof, built by Mexican craftsmen, illustrates the close collaboration our studio and construction laborers. This seemingly anarchic structure completely fills the exhibition space and presents itself as a decontextualized object, giving the gallery both a ‘dirty’ and imaginative atmosphere. On top of the wood construction rests a concrete model, symbolizing the completed architectonic object.
For this reason, the office focusses on solutions that result from interaction between various disciplines. In a certain sense, this interaction reflects Mexican society at-large, the execution is usually exciting and rather chaotic and its outcome can hardly ever be predetermined. The architecture we seek to practice holds by embracing the process the process in a proper way will lead to high quality buildings. Thus, to us architecture ultimately is the product of a fruitful collaboration between the office and client, project and site, and architect and craftsman.
