Cultural Facilities Network: Inspired by Place—Cultural Interventions in the Mexican Landscape (In-person)

Event Description

The US has set up encouraging goals of immersing a wide array of people in cultural programs while introducing those communities to different art forms distinct from the typical and familiar. But what are other countries and design firms abroad doing to embrace the diversity in their culture? And, what can we learn from them?

For the first meeting of 2024, we will expand our physical boundaries and explore the work of Mexico-based firm Atelier Ars in the international cultural and community landscape.

Andrea Soto, a graduate of Harvard GSD and principal at Atelier Ars will present the firm’s design philosophy through the lens of two projects, each involving the arts and community of Jalisco, Mexico: The Center for Culture and Arts of the Lakeside and the Tequila Offices and Warehouse. Please join us on February 21 at BSA Space to take part in this stimulating conversation over pizza and drinks.

This event is hybrid for those who would prefer to join us via zoom. You will receive a link to register via Zoom after RSVP'ing using the link above.

Presenters

Andrea Soto graduated from ITESO University in 2011 and won the CEMEX Architect Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship which made possible her studies in the Master in Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), graduating with distinction in 2017 and with a special recognition by the American Society of Landscape Architects ASLA. She has been part of the Cemex Prize jury, and at the Quito Architecture Biennale in 2022. She has lectured at SALA University of British Columbia and The University of Virginia (UVA), as well as guest critic at the GSD and UVA.

Alejandro Guerrero graduated from ITESO University in 2000 and studied for the master Architecture, Criticism and Project at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia from 2005 to 2006. He has been architectural design professor from 2006 to 2020 at his alma mater and other institutions. He was named as Academic by the National Academy of Architecture in México in 2019. He published the book Arquitecturas del Fuego I y II (Architectures of Fire I and II) in 2020. He has been lecturer and critic at Quito Architecture Biennale in 2022.

ATELIER ARS is the architecture studio led by Alejandro Guerrero and Andrea Soto based in Guadalajara Mexico. The studio has received the Emerging Voices award, given by The Architectural League of New York and the Design Vanguard from the Architectural Record magazine, both awards in the year 2015. Their work has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall America’s Prize that is granted by the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and has been finalist in the Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They have been lecturers at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard through the Latin GSD cycle, as well as invited critics for final reviews at the same university. Some of their work became part of the Official Exhibition of Mexico’s Pavilion at the Architecture Venice Biennial in 2014, 2016 and 2018. They obtained a Silver Medal in the XV Mexican Architecture Biennial and were finalists in the Emerging Architects prize from the Architectural Review magazine in 2018. Their work has been recognized and 1st prized at the III Latin American Biennial of Landscape Architecture. In 2019 as part of the event Mantovarchitettura 2019 they participated as lecturers and their work was presented in the international exhibition “Diseñando México” of the Milan Polytechnic, Polo Territorial di Mantova, in collaboration with CASABELLA magazine. Together they curated the seminar Pensar el Presente (Thinking the Present) in 2022 at ForA, a local platform for architectural reflection in Guadalajara. Their Project Center for Culture and Arts of the Lakeside has currently won silver medal in the category of public and cultural places at the Erich Mendelshon Preis 2023 in Berlin.