a+u 24:02, 641

a+u’s February issue presents architectural works by the Mexican firm Tatiana Bilbao Estudio – projects that are representative of values developed over nearly 20 years of practice. Founded in 2004 by the architect Tatiana Bilbao, the eponymic studio prioritizes the communities for whom they build and seeks to understand the socio-environmental frameworks in which they build, while also playing with scale, geometry, and materiality. The firm’s portfolio ranges from large-scale projects of master planning and building design, such as Culiacán Botanical Garden and Estoa – University of Monterrey, to investigations of form through residential projects like Casa Ajijic, as well as precise interventions that serve an existing community, as seen in the disaster reconstruction projects of Reconstruir Mx. Tatiana Bilbao departs from typical systems of representations used in architecture through collage, a technique that perhaps best demonstrates the layered contexts that architects must reconcile to create meaningful design. A selection of key exhibitions captures the breadth of the studio’s research of private and public space. This issue of a+u thus invites the reader to an architectural chorography of Mexico through the design ideologies espoused by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio. (a+u)