villers, odériz, kochen's latest exhibition rethinks modern architecture in mexico city

‘manifesto house’ is an exhibition presented by mexican architect lucia villers and her co-authors alberto odériz and juan jose kochen and drawn from the research related to the o’gorman house which explores the ideas surrounding its construction. the o’ gorman house has been built by juan o’ gorman between 1929 and 1931 in the san angel neighborhood, when he was 24 years old and became the experimental laboratory of modern housing in mexico. the house was built behind of what then will become the diego rivera and frida kahlo house studio, this first construction was used by o’ gorman to acquire the commission for the painters.

anonymous photograph of the recently finished o’ gorman house — published in issue no. 22 of tolteca
image by INBA

in 1923 ‘vers une architecture’ by le corbusier was published. juan o’ gorman read it ‘many times with the maximum interest’; in those years he ‘carried the book under his arm all the time’. in other words, the o’ gorman house represents the materialization of the ideals of modernity presented by le corbusier in his book.

exhibition held in ‘sala josé luis benlliure’ at the faculty of architecture of UNAM

villers, odériz and kochen’s investigation-exhibition project found that each built element of the house corresponded to those ideals. each form has an ideological reason in its existence, hence the argument that architecture is not innocent. all elements of the house were classified and reproduced on a scale of 1: 5. the exhibition consists of presenting each element of the house in form and in idea; therefore, the deconstructed forms of the house are presented with a classification that explains to which theme each element belongs.

‘manifesto house’ is an exhibition presented by mexican architect lucia villers

drawn from the research related to the o’gorman house which explores the ideas surrounding its construction

lucia villers’ investigation-exhibition found that each built element of the house corresponded to those ideals

each form has an ideological reason in its existence

all elements of the house were classified and reproduced on a scale of 1: 5

the exhibition consists of presenting each element of the house in form and in idea

the deconstructed forms are presented with a classification that explains to which theme each element belongs

the o’ gorman house became the experimental laboratory of modern housing in mexico

project credits:

authors
lucía villers
juan josé kochen
alberto odériz

team
diego tapia
sara ivone
madeline jiménez
alejandro palafox
hiram yunqué
alejandro alfaro

the ‘manifesto house’ project has been supported by FONCA. the project team wishes to especially thank the architecture department and conservation of the artistic heritage of INBA, the faculty of architecture of UNAM, the ICA foundation and the diego rivera and frida kahlo house studio museum.

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: apostolos costarangos | designboom