Design House redefines Mexican creativity at Design Week Mexico 2022

Design Week Mexico (DWM) has embarked on its 14th edition in the city of Mexico. With the initiative to promote design as a tool of economic, social, cultural, and environmental development, the design week, for the last 14 years, has exhibited Mexican design to local, national, and international public. Among the array of programmes encompassing Mexican creatives and design is Design House, a project where various Mexican designers have collaborated to shapeshift a house into a showcase of contemporary Mexican design. For the 2022 edition, the modern architecture of a house by architect Enrique Castañeda Tamborel becomes the architectural canvas for the designers to paint. The house is divided into 16 interior spaces and five exterior spaces,  allowing each design to remain a separate entity, with its own design identity and concept. Narrating the idea of distinctive spaces, the official release states, “The spaces of the Design House are divided to generate a design exhibition of styles and trends, which present to the public the creative dialogue of the New Mexican House.”

With 19 temporary installation-like spaces, each displaying a unique theme of Mexican design, Design House aims to be an overwhelming sensory experience for visitors— traversing from one space to another, absorbing different styles, scales, and ideologies. However, the spaces transition in architectural circulation and hierarchy than in the original residence design by Tamborel.

The lobby space welcoming the visitors was given a new character by the projects committee itself. With a latticework, interesting play of light and shadows, and geometric transparency, the redesign is said to be inspired by the experimentations and explorations of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa. From the lobby space, one moves into Victorie Doutreleau's Tea Room designed by AD HOC, Zero Angle, and Balmaceda. The room, time-travels to the 1970s with a surrealistic narration of a whimsical tea party where Doutreleau celebrates Saint Laurent's new collection. Amid the storyline of the design— colourful rugs, playful furniture, and sculptural chandeliers become a visual manifestation of the set.

In direct dialogue with Victorie Doutreleau’s Tea Room is the Mount Analog by The Book of Wa and Rebecca Cors. Transforming the dining room into a sculptural landscape, the designers aim to “blur the boundaries between the formal and the abstract, between the utilitarian and the scenic.” As the name suggests, the installation draws a thread of inspiration from René Daumal’s 1970 novel, ‘El Monte Análogo.’ The allegorical text is brought into the design elements by the use of monumental works of art, stone, and ambiguous furniture, crystalline lights, and preserved nature. Visually connected to the lobby space, but physically separated by a green perforated partition, is the hallway, Istawán designed by CO, MA Art Services, and Mexican Classics. The relation between interiors and exteriors, achieved through skylights, lattices, and interior gardens transforms the hallway into an architectural imagination of the fifties. Adjacent to the hallway is the kitchen designed by Gerardo Gracia Architecture. Hall PB, in the passageway from the hallway to the Sofia Aspe Interior Design and Palace House’s playroom, adorns contemporary art and furniture in achromatic tones. Set on the lines of Mexican NeoBrutalism, Hall PB designed by Mood Studio aims to transport the visitor to a timeless eclectic future. With light as a central element highlighting the forms and reliefs, a new reality is created in the space that acts as a common thread between artistic pieces and current architectural elements. Promoting Mexican brands inside the Design House, Baron&Vicario, Abitante, and Ensamble Artesano designed the concept-store National.

At the introduction of the upper floor of the Design House is Threshold, a lobby space designed by Cristina Grappin and Still House. Conceived as two large boxes, one of black granite and the other of wood, Threshold in the words of the designer is “an opportunity to pause and move between the public and the private, between noise and silence, chaos and calm.” Moving from the lobby, De la Cerda and Difane have created the space, Dasein influenced by and designed for Tamborel, it combines personal and professional space, exploring multifunctionality through the architect’s forms and structures.

Inspired by the interior design of Josef Hoffman, Studio Panebianco and BREUER transformed a space in the Design House into a study, bedroom, and bathroom. At the intersection of art, design, and local produce, this space aims to be a celebration of craftsmanship. Occupying an extent of the upper floor are—the bedrooms by German Velasco and Design Within Reach Mexico, which capture the spirit and progressive innovation defining the character of the house, and Bachelor Pad by Zavala Rivera and STR by Studioroca. Generating sensations of peace, serenity, and freshness, Serene Haven is a room designed by Goldberg Interiors and One Hundred\Eleven by IHO. A Roof Garden with a Japanese ofuro-style tub as a centrepiece marks the last of the interior spaces, designed by Studio H.Fernández and NUUSH, the organic terrace, with a monochrome colour palette, hopes to create a unique atmosphere of relaxation.

The exterior spaces include— an Audi space by Audi and C Cubic Architects, a cafeteria by C Cubic Architects, Royal Botanical and Onnno Cafe, and a RADO Space by Synesthesia Architects. Bringing innovations of landscape design to the surroundings of Design House is Side Yard by Environment Landscape Workshop and Piacere, and a herbaceous garden. All the design interventions in the Design House have been planned in a way that does not damage the character of the existing shell.

Along with Design House, Inedito, Design Dealers, Vision and Tradition, and Design Tours will also be taking place during Design Week Mexico 2022. “Design is the cause, the engine that drives and unites the Design Week Mexico family,” states the Director of Mexico Creative Territory, Emilio Cabrero in the official release. This year, DWM is hosting Brazil as the guest country, and Metepec with its artisan community as the guest city.

Design House will be on display as a part of Design Week Mexico 2022 from October 14, 2022 to November 13, 2022.