S-AR’s Pyrotechnic tower illuminates Casa Naila during Mexico Design Fair 2022

The power of design is to weave memories through time and influence thoughts and actions. Studio S-AR of Mexico taps the cultural memorabilia with their latest installation for the Mexico Design Fair. The tower by S-AR is built right next to the beach at one of Mexico Design Fair’s event locations, Casa Naila. It stands tall in a cuboidal frame made of wood and concrete as a pyrotechnic display for the festival. “We wanted the piece to have a visible presence beyond the intervention site. As the beach and the horizon are a flat straight line, the piece is opposed to a vertical line. The tower interprets a lighthouse and the signalling light for a distant observer. It also refers to an artificial sun, which is a spectacle, an adaptation of what happens with the real sun at sunrise and sunset in the area of the Mexican Pacific,” shares Ana Cecilia Garza and Cesar Guerrero from S-AR for the conception of their installation at the Mexico Design Fair 2022.

Designed as a vertical projection in a naturally horizontal setting, S-AR’s pyrotechnic tower marked the closing note for the fair with its extravagant fireworks display while being a design marvel. S-AR created the pyrotechnic structure using four different materials including, wood for the structure, metal elements as reinforcement, reed for supporting fireworks within the cubes, and the materials of the fireworks themselves with regular aluminium paper.

The tower successfully portrayed the cultural importance of ‘cohetes’ or fireworks in Mexico, setting the scenery of a jubiliant festival by the beach. In all of its glories, the tower stood as a contrast to the bright blue sky and the azure blue sea during the day. Within the natural light , the complexity of the tower’s structure was a prominent display of modernism in design with its perfect volume, tactility and structural elegance. While, by the day’s end, the tower merged well with the setting sun over the horizon. The relatively darker tones of its structure showcased the striking white and yellow lights from the fireworks as a clear, unbound suspension in the night sky. Once the fireworks began, the tower accentuated the whole space in a dreamlike scenario.

For the creation of this year’s installation for the Mexico Design Fair, the goal was to create an experience and explore the craft related to fire, light and festivity. “In the end, MDF is a design fair. The idea is that this piece was in a certain way symbolic of the design festival, bringing the design to the pyrotechnic craft tradition that originates in Mexico,” share Ana and Cesar. Studio S-AR considered the size of the installation, its structure, and construction method to connect architecture as a design discipline with an aesthetic conversation. They created a relevance of the tower’s scale to the site, that is, Casa Naila, with its elements including the rocks, the beach and even the sea. The idea was to contextualise a vertical element in a space which was relatively horizontal and flat.

The thoughts behind the structure were not only limited to the resistance of the piece but also enhanced in terms of the spatial support that was needed to hold the tower in place. The construction team behind the design of the tower worked well in line with an innovative system of construction while easing into a modularized system of hassle-free transportation and timely execution of the project.

The tower was established in a way that merged well with nature but also avoided any disturbances to the environment after the festivities were over. S-AR’s team developed a strategic architectural design that incorporated all the qualities of being a contemporary, highly efficient, perfectly contextual and sustainable design.

Inaugurated in 2021, the second edition of the Mexico Design Fair was held from May 20 to May 22, 2022, at a beachfront vacation home in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. As one of the many design festivals stirring up the world at this moment, the Mexican fair was an extravagant celebration of the cultural and traditional design in the country. Curated by designer and architect Carlos Torre Hütt, the successful fair featured more than 30 designers, brands and galleries.