projects | Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

javier sánchez is the selected commissioner and curator for mexico's participation at the 11th international architecture exhibition - la biennale di venezia 2008. living in here, a collective proposal for mexico city's housing, gathers building ideas from several protagonists mutually from design field and not. jsª designdevelopment group has interviewed architects, building contractor, housing authorities, professors, architectural association members, as well as residents in affordable housing. from this survey it appeared that everybody agrees that housing in mexico has been forgotten both by architects and state. to satisfy the demand, carte blanche has been entrusted to building contractors that have produced large scale projects totally aloof from social and city. 10 groups of young architects have been invited to exhibit, in the area of the arsenale, ideas for city's affordable housing (arturo ortiz struck + rozana montiel + tatiana bilbao sc + rojkind arquitectos / michel rojkind + productora / víctor jaime + abel perles + wonne ickx + carlos bedoya + arquitectura 911sc / jose castillo + saidee springall + tallerdearquitectura / mauricio rocha + frente / juan pablo maza + dellekamp arquitectos + gerardo asili / derek dellekamp + gerardo asili + at103 / francisco pardo + julio amezcua + peter ebner and friends). to obtain this result it's been decided to operate on the fabric of the neighborhoods. as fertile ground for proposals, colonia obrera was chosen, a typical neighborhood placed in the center of mexico city, characterized by its intense street life and informal commerce. now the question is to understand how to integrate a larger density among new public spaces and services. the architects took the liberty of reinventing the construction codes as best desirable, they kept in mind only the space's quality needs and constructability. architects were asked to work together to create a permeable ground with connections between the projects in order to face space and to strengthen community. the intent is to have enough density to open a dialogue about the way of organizing our territory and propose options to sprawl. projects were presented through models, projections and graphical boards, which were spotted by lights that emphasized the sobriety of the urban story exhibited. domestic lights (E27) hanging above the heads of the sitting visitors helped concentrated and private reading. big feet placed skim to the solid brick walls emphasized the peculiarity of the location. c2 light became narrative, it assisted the message of panel's graphics. models were lit by pro mini track light that pervading from above as a sun ray avoided flattening volumes, in fact highlighting shadows. the attention paid by the architects towards the light element is important to understand better the team's thorough design and the values that had to be promoted worldwide throughout this mexico's representative space.