Articles by Valentina Díaz

In the architectural history of the Mexican territory, the built environment has functioned not merely as a human stage, but as a biological infrastructure designed to organize proximity between species. The resulting spatial logic is not a solo performance, but a negotiated coexistence between human and animal bodies. To examine this heritage today is to shift the analytical focus away from stylistic authorship and toward a more fundamental phenomenon: the persistence of spatial practices that emerged to sustain shared forms of life.

On the outskirts of Balcarce, a mountain range is interrupted by a precise void: a sharp cut in the slope, a missing piece that becomes a signal. The house takes this “bite” as its starting point and organizes all its material around that absence. More than an isolated object, it is conceived as a device for viewing: a heavy roof that aligns with the silhouette of the mountain range and establishes, in the foreground, a new geometry from which to reinterpret the landscape.

In the forests of Avándaro, this house is located on a slope of dense vegetation and a steep topography that directs rainwater toward the adjacent stream.

The house settles gently into the landscape, resting on the highest point and unfolding along the slope. This quiet gesture reduces earthworks and lets the main façade open wide to the south, drawing in the light.

Casa Loredo is the second single-family project in the series called “New Vernacular Architecture of the Cantabrian Coast” (NAVC). Located in the Cantabrian town that gives it its name, this house seeks to reinterpret the traditional techniques of the region, adapting them to contemporary needs.

In 2022, Michan Architecture, together with Parabase and Taller de Paisaje Entorno, won an international design competition for three new pavilions and a landscape project in Chapultepec Park, one of the largest and oldest parks in Latin America. Most of the mass of the project is generated by reusing the site’s own resources, respecting existing trees and minimizing waste.