Tatiana Bilbao (1972) was born and grew up in Mexico City. She has built in many other countries than Mexico and works with a global outlook, but Mexico’s cultural, social and political conditions form a natural part of her activities; although often implicit, social commitment is like a built-in reflex – a way of thinking.
Bilbao’s work can be categorized roughly into two types: the bread-and-butter projects with economic and artistic opportunities to experiment and develop an architectural vocabulary; and projects that are determined by a minimal economy and for which the architect may not even be paid – social housing in Mexico. The knowledge she acquires from the more traditional tasks is used to create necessary, sustainable solutions and to overcome problems in the world of realities. Bilbao has addressed a wealth of initiatives to the Mexican State, which is responsible for ensuring all Mexicans their constitutional right to a home.
Bilbao’s work can be categorized roughly into two types: the bread-and-butter projects with economic and artistic opportunities to experiment and develop an architectural vocabulary; and projects that are determined by a minimal economy and for which the architect may not even be paid – social housing in Mexico. The knowledge she acquires from the more traditional tasks is used to create necessary, sustainable solutions and to overcome problems in the world of realities. Bilbao has addressed a wealth of initiatives to the Mexican State, which is responsible for ensuring all Mexicans their constitutional right to a home.
The exhibition series The Architect’s Studio presents a succession of contemporary architects and their work with sustainable, socially aware architecture that relates to the great challenges of globalization.
The two spheres in Bilbao’s work are linked by simple geometry; a tool that can communicate architectural principles to uneducated construction workers in Mexico. It is geometry that the hand can draw, as opposed to parametric design – design which is created by and large with the aid of the algorithmic thinking of the drawing programs and which most architects work with today. In both process and presentation, Bilbao works with paper collages in an analogue approach to a profession that is otherwise dominated today by virtual renderings.
The exhibition is organized in three sections. The first takes its point of departure in the Mexican culture and landscape that form the background for Bilbao’s work, after which the processual approach and method of the drawing office are introduced. The third section shows full-size installations based on works that illus- trate the use of geometry, materials and landscape.
The examples include the Botanical Garden in Culiacan and a new Aquarium and Research Centre in Mazatlán.
