LA COHERENCIA DE TUS VALORES AL FINAL ES UNA DISCIPLINA, DONDE TU ÉTICA Y TU FORMA DE HACER LAS COSAS VA MADURANDO, DONDE TE VAS SINTIENDO CÓMODO CONTIGO MISMO. THE COHERENCE OF YOUR VALUES AT THE END IS A DISCIPLINE, WHERE YOUR ETHICS AND YOUR WAY OF DOING THINGS MATURES, AND YOU BECOME MORE COMFORTABLE WITH YOURSELF.
- For you, it's not about reinterpreting the original architecture… There are many colleagues who say that Mexican architecture must represent the essential, but I say: the essentials of whom? When there is a smith able to do an amazing job, carpenters and stonemasons who carve wood and marbles, then it isn't a problem of whether there is a budget or not, it is a matter of boasting a trade, saying that there is a Mexican artisan with the ability to carve wood as if jewelry. Well, I want to use it and say that this is done in this country. The vernacular is surely present in my architecture, but it is not the flag I have been defending. The claim that it is ingrained, is not part of my discourse… Or maybe it is, I really don't know… - Let's look at this craft recovery in concrete works such as the Tori Tori restaurant, made with Héctor Esrawe, who also works from that place. Besides being a great friend, Héctor is one of the brightest people I know. He belongs to one of the first generations of industrial designers trained in the university (Iberoamericana) and has achieved an impeccable, mature career, at a time when the industrial design of the country was basically focused on furniture. In all his explorations and experimentations, the subject of crafts is clearly present. In the Tori Tori we had to develop many samples and we had a very low budget, although people think that was not the case. For example, we cut the patterns of the mantle in laser, using a very thin sheet, and as we didn't have a plate of good size, 10 centimeter 'boxes' were made and soldered piece by piece; then,
they were filled with recovered polyurethane –recycled plastic– so that they wouldn't dent or feel hollow. The result is a solid, firm roof… The work of the blacksmiths was impeccable. There are those who say that Tori Tori could be anywhere in the world… ok, fine, but it's made by Mexicans. The same with a work like Foro Boca. - How did that 'Mexican experience' occur there? For example, the formwork for the concrete pieces was made in place with local materials (Boca del Río, Veracruz). And more than one has criticized me for not putting windows on the façade that looks out to sea. The answer is simple: because it is in an area with the strongest north winds of the region, the sand hits with a force that you have no idea and because the people there see the ocean every day. If you want to go to a classical music concert, you want to go to that and not to watch the ocean. It is a concert hall… criticism of architecture almost always comes from architects; when the musicians criticize the building, or the people who use it, then I will worry about it… I try to think of some project of mine where the topic of local crafts is not present, and it's difficult. There is something that I call transmutation, which is how I pass information from the craft to technology and vice versa, how I explain to an artisan that their trade is informing me to feed the data on the computer and then I go back to the craftsman again and again. There is a constant learning where nothing is imposed on them, it is the other way around.
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