The work and research of Rozana Montiel reflects the values we sought to exhibit at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition. The work is highly sophisticated, free of indulgence, with a palpable determination to build a form of architecture that she describes as “social construction”.
The work ranges from private houses, low cost social housing, playgrounds, a circle sanctuary forming part of a pilgrim path, to prototypical designs for incinerating stations and water harvesting domes. This rootedness in the belief that architecture must respond to what are extreme needs in Mexico, is driven by the belief that architecture always has to provide “more”. Montiel asks: “How do we communicate and convey the necessity of beauty as the tool in the production of the contemporary city? Beauty is not a luxury but a basic service”.
This exhibit communicates the values of the practice, the desire to “change barriers into boundaries” to open up new horizons, giving a sense that this section of the Corderie wall is removed and replaced by bringing the life of the outside world of Venice into the assigned space. What is so engaging about this work is the refusal to separate beauty from need and function, and to continue to create and promote the “oneiric” dreamlike possibilities of architecture.
YF+SMcN
Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura
Stand Ground