Tatiana Bilbao Estudio exhibition at Architekturzentrum Wien

For the first time, the most important projects of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio are on show in Austria, at Architekturzentrum Wien, from today 19 August until 17 January 2022, at the exhibition organized by the Viennese institution in association with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art of Humlebæk, Denmark. The most significant buildings by the Mexican firm, founded by architect Tatiana Bilbao in Mexico City in 2004, are accompanied by splendid photographs and a “cabinet of curiosities” containing samples of the raw materials used, working models and sketches. The aim is to provide visitors with insight into the design work and architectural vision of one of the new generation’s leading figures, for a better understanding of the role of an architect in the XXI Century. Here we are looking at an architect working in the difficult, extreme context of Latin America, where the gap between the super-rich and the people on the margins of or excluded from society is growing, and the environment is becoming more and more fragile.
About 25 projects are exhibited, originating from various parts of the world and including cultural and educational buildings, urban masterplans and projects for mixed use, such as residential buildings ranging from detached homes to social housing complexes.
Discussing the works of Tatiana Bilbao, Az W Director Angelika Fitz stated: “Her projects are driven not only by environmental and social thinking, but also by great poetry.”
In fact, an analysis of social conditions and landscape are central to all the Mexican firm’s projects, and so the exhibition also features various realizations in this area: from projects in the Mexican countryside to the urban, social and cultural contexts that have shared characteristics in all geographical locations. Tatiana Bilbao studies and interprets Mexico’s cultural history and traditional Mexican construction techniques such as the use of beaten earth or low-cost everyday materials. “When you come from a country where many people have very little in the way of economic resources,” Tatiana Bilbao explains, “you are used to not wasting them.” What’s more, her works are frequently produced in collaboration with other architects, landscape architects, artists and residents, because she believes that interaction with other approaches and ideas is fundamental for the realization of projects in harmony with the context, rather than just satisfying an individual ego, whether of the client or architect.
To express its projects, the Mexican firm has developed a creative approach to representation, which responds to the needs of clients unskilled in reading architectural drawings. It is a representation which prefers the use of collages and hand-drawn sketches rather than renderings. According to the architect, the advantage of landscape collages is that they show the whole context, including the invisible features of a location such as its economy, politics, society, history and culture. She views renderings, on the other hand, as a hindrance to the creative process, above all because they limit the imagination and thus the actual evolution of the project. In the show, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio’s collages are displayed in dialogue with objects chosen from the Vienna gallery’s collection, selected from its exhibition history.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Architekturzentrum Wien, photos by Iwan Baan, Rodrigo Chapa, Rory Gardiner, Anna Hop; all rendering and collage by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

Title: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio
The exhibition is a cooperation with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk Denmark.
Date: 19.08.2021-17.01.2022
Opening: Wed 18.08.2021, 19:00
Location: Exhibition Hall 2, Architekturzentrum Wien, Museumsplatz 1 im MQ 1070 Wien, Austria https://www.azw.at/en/
Photos by: Iwan Baan (09-10), Rodrigo Chapa (03), Rory Gardiner (01-02), Anna Hop (04);
Rendering and collage by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

catalogue "Tatiana Bilbao Estudio" published by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Editor: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Published by: Lars Müller Publishers
Price: € 46

Captions:

01-02
Description: Residential house “Los Terrenos”, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, 2012 – 2016
© photograph: Rory Gardiner

03
Description: Redensification „Territorio de Gigantes“, Aguascalientes, Mexiko, 2013 – 2018
© photograph: Rodrigo Chapa

04
Description: Tatiana Bilbao Portrait
© photograph: Anna Hop

05 - 06
Description: Collegium Museum and old town revitalisation in Arévalo, Ávila, Spanien, 2014 –
Modell and rendering ©: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

07
Description: Affordable housing “Housing +”, Chiapas, Mexiko, 2013 – 2015
© photograph: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

08
Description: Cortes Aquarium and Marine Research Centre, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, 2017 -
© collage: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

09
Description: Social housing - a total of 16 housing units of 52 m2 each and a public space of 27,000m2 - in Acuña, Mexico, 2015
© photograph: Iwan Baan

10
Description: Botanical Garden, Culiacan, Mexico, 2012
© photograph: Iwan Baan

11 - 12
Description: Cortes Aquarium and Marine Research Centre, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, 2017
© Collage: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio

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