EL DEPORTE PARA MÍ ES UNA MEDITACIÓN, UN RECONOCIMIENTO DE MI CUERPO QUE A LA VEZ ME MANTIENE MUY CONSCIENTE. ME ENCANTA CORRER ANTES DE PRESENTAR UN PROYECTO O ANTES DE LLEGAR A LA OFICINA, ME ORDENA. NO SÉ SI TODOS LOS CREATIVOS SOMOS CAÓTICOS POR NATURALEZA, PERO SIEMPRE HE BUSCADO EL BALANCE: ENTRE MÁS ME PUEDO DISCIPLINAR Y TENER ESTRUCTURA, MÁS PUEDO SER CREATIVO E INTUITIVO. SPORTS FOR ME ARE A MEDITATION, AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY BODY THAT AT THE SAME TIME KEEPS ME VERY CONSCIOUS. I LOVE RUNNING BEFORE PRESENTING A PROJECT OR BEFORE ARRIVING AT THE OFFICE, IT ORGANIZES ME. I DON'T KNOW IF ALL CREATIVES ARE CHAOTIC BY NATURE, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS LOOKED FOR THE BALANCE: THE MORE I CAN DISCIPLINE MYSELF AND HAVE STRUCTURE, THE MORE I CAN BE CREATIVE AND INTUITIVE.
- On that same note, how was the work for a global corporation like Nestlé in the Chocolate Museum? Suddenly I began to realize that the museum for Nestlé was also a fight for a space that was public in some way… Nestlé had asked for a factory with an interior tunnel, so that the children could get to know the process, be marketeered from an early age and leave with their bag of chocolates, as companies often do. But we realized that there was no chocolate museum in Mexico. So first I presented what they had requested for the competition, and then I brought out our research and told them that they should understand and regionalize the importance of Mexican cacao, the Aztecs and local history with a museum, where I come to see your factory but in return you give me culture. The idea was presented in Switzerland and they accepted. Suddenly you see that it's not so difficult to convince to do something with more impact at the community level. We have continued to do it and the interesting thing is that now it is the clients who arrive asking "what can you do with my company to have an impact". - The sense of freedom that joins the imagination to propose… That's the way I see it with the companies that I admire the most. Those that are more connected with the general culture are the smartest, they understand their niche but at the same time they are connected. The same with architecture, because, in the end as architects we respond to a society, and if you are not able to see how it is changing, to whom do you respond? If I am not seeing what young people do today, how they work, how they are educated, how they communicate and relate, there is no way I can answer to them. I can't do an architecture thinking in a society of 50 years ago.
- This is where WeWork appears, connecting with your ideas? The WeWork thing came at a key moment for me last year. He had just finished the Foro Boca, won several awards, a time when I saw how my musician self had come together with the architect, and with the social dimension, a peak in my career you could say. WeWork had called my friend Bjarke Ingels (from Big) as architecture advisor. WeWork has grown very fast, but they didn't have their own buildings and they wanted to start building in different countries. In that strategy Bjarke tells me that when they go to Mexico, they want me to do the buildings. A couple of months pass, he calls me again and tells me that the owners of the company want to meet me… - What led you to accept their proposal to join as vice president of architecture at WeWork? With Adam (Newmann) and Miguel (McKelvey) we had instant chemistry. Two young people who began nine years ago to question why work has to be monotonous when you spend most of your time in it and your workmates are almost family, why should it be from 9 to 5, why can't work be an entertaining way of life. Then they created the WeWork model and turned the concept of work around. Then they said, how do we understand a generation that wants to travel the world, that is not about possessions, doesn't want to own homes or cars or jewelry, wants to be free and live differently, that's where WeLive emerges, with shared housing. The share economy, where instead of an architectural plan with 20 apartments there are only 12, and the eight that you removed are for shared areas for other activities. And they also realize that these young couples want a different education for their children, and then they invent the WeGrow school. So, when I came to this company that tells me 'we are a social thermometer, we are interested in education, housing, work'… it sounded good to me.
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