El Croquis Architecture
Lorna Schildt
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The architects of Studio Macas Peredo, based in Guadalajara and led by Salvador Macas Corona, Magui Peredo Arenas, and Diego Quirarte Contreras, believe that the act of designing is inseparable from the act of remembering. Architecture is a living testimony to the culture of a place. The studio is greatly influenced by pre-Hispanic architecture, archaeology, and Mexican colonial styles, and the partners travel extensively, studying vernacular and modern buildings throughout Mexico in order to grasp how they work. This issue presents their work from 2014 to 2024, including the Punta Caliza Hotel, Izamal Water Garden, and tropical residential complexes.
The objective was to create a flexible building, in the case of a living publishing house, which must adapt to new requirements.
The strict regulations of the neighborhood in relation to the height of construction and the obligatory use of sloping roofs became the leitmotif that generated a restless volume that gradually began to move.
El Croquis magazine is one of the most prestigious architecture publications in the world.
The architects Fernando Mrquez and Richard Levene, its creators, have edited and directed the magazine since 1982. In 1999 they inaugurated the El Croquis Architecture Gallery, as a place to exhibit the most significant projects under construction in the new headquarters of the editorial El Croquis, a building designed by both architects.
Being their own clients, they faced the project with great freedom and responsibility, fully aware that their project can be judged, taking care of everything from the program to the materials.
The project elaboration process lasted a year and two more of construction. In that time the studio grew and part of the program was changed. The peculiar idiosyncrasy of the architects in relation to the indeterminacy and ambiguity in the uses, desires and priorities acted as a liberating factor, allowing the program of needs to be questioned and kept open, not compartmentalizing the spaces at each level and inventing new uses during the long project process and execution.
The original idea to use a flat roof was ruled out by the strict regulations. Instead, the building was tilted and placed on the embankments. The volumes sink into the ground. The two emerging prisms, finally provided with a sort of sloping roof, rest on a series of planes that move in turn, on the edge of two abstract granite fluids that descend parallel to the transverse direction of the site, stitching the artificial topography slopes and emphasizing the pedestrian and service access roads.
The building is made up of two blocks forming an L shape, connected on the ground floor. Initially, one block was used as the editorial and the other as a gallery. However, in practical use the two blocks remained absorbed by the publishing house, using the ground floor as a gallery, or conference room where discussions or debates can be organized. This is the flexibility needed in the program.
Given the residential nature of the neighborhood, it was decided to make a building whose interior was larger than it appeared from the outside, in order to respect the context. Externally it follows the alignments and heights of the area, but inside, the building is spatially larger using double and triple heights.
The building consists of spaces of different character, although well interconnected, each of them being independent.
The two blocks are open their facades to the garden. The volume of the Gallery has translucent glass, unlike that of the Editorial, which is transparent. These enclosures, determined by the amount of sunlight and the desired degree of luminosity, soften the light or highlight certain perspectives.
The solution adopted in the faades provides the building with a solid foundation, a certain iota of maturity that it needs as the headquarters of one of the best architecture magazines in the world.
The prisms cover their opaque faces in Roman travertine marble and iroko wood.
The inclined planes are made of corten steel and laminated glass.
El Croquis is one of the most prestigious architectural magazines in the world. Founded in 1982 by Richard Levene and Fernando Marquez, it publishes five monographs every year. The volumes dedicated to established Pritzker Prize names like OMA Rem Koolhaas, SANAA Sejima & Nishizawa, Herzog & de Meuron, Alvaro Siza or Rafael Moneo, are considered their respective oeuvre complte.
As opposed to other architecture journals, its editorial line, photography and layout are the direct result of the decision-making of its two founders, who literally curate everything from the architects featured in the journal to the frame and viewpoint of every single photograph. As a result, architectures as diverse in their idea and spatiality as those of Rem Koolhaas, Enric Miralles, SANAA, Christian Kerez or Zaha Hadid become croquis-like when they are published in the journal.
The University of Westminster now subscribes to the online version of Detail : Zeitschrift fr Architektur + Baudetail : review of architecture : revue d'architecture. It is listed in the E-Resources A-Z under DETAIL Inspiration and the online version of El Croquis Digital Library which can be found by searching In Library Search using the Books, journals and more search option
Following on from the first volume - published in 2013 - the new volume features selected projects from 2013 to 2019 and can be purchased directly from the publishers and at all good architecture bookshops.
Marking the publication of the book Hopkins in the City, editors Adam Caruso and Helen Thomas present five urban projects by Michael Hopkins and Partners at the Barbican as part of the Architecture On Stage series.
Recently, Rachel Whiteread made a cast in concrete of the steel staircase designed by the practice at the Gagosian Gallery, Kings Cross. The gallery in Kings Cross opened in 2004, and closed last year after moving to Mayfair.
To coincide with the Flanders Architecture Institute's exhibition As Found, director Dennis Pohl will chair a panel discussion on experimental approaches to the transformation of existing buildings in Belgium and the UK. The discussion will feature Peter St John and Johan Anrys of 51N4E in conversation with exhibition co-curator Hlya Ertas. Register for tickets here
Royale Belge has won plaudits at the annual MIPIM real estate fair in Cannes. The project was shortlisted in two categories at the MIPIM Awards, Best Conversion and Best Mixed-use, and triumphed in both.
Two competition-winning projects by Caruso St John feature in What if? Unbuilt Architecture in Switzerland. The exhibition at Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum Basel offers a glimpse of an alternative Switzerland with a showcase of significant unbuilt projects from across the country.
Several designs by Caruso St John feature in an exhibition by Hamburg's Department of Urban Development and Housing, presenting architectural competitions and procedures undertaken in the city from 2017 to 2023.
Milan's Spazio gallery and bookshop hosts an event to celebrate the publication of Caruso St John's Collected Works Volume 2. Adam Caruso will discuss the themes explored by the book, notably how the practice's work has been influenced by the architecture of 20th century Chicago and Milan.
The partners will discuss their experience of working with existing structures, from modestly scaled early work, to substantial projects such as Tate Britain and the Newport Street Gallery in London, Veemgebouw in Eindhoven and Royale Belge in Brussels.
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