Discover the world of Pedro Y Juana in Mexico

You may count on a enterprise referred to as Pedro Y Juana to be named for its respective companions however the dynamic, Mexico Metropolis-based structure and design follow is, in actual fact, led by co-directors Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss. They clarify that their selection of studio identify had extra to do with concepts of authorship and the character of structure follow than any literal illustration.

‘Who’s producing the work? Is there such a factor as an creator, or is it fairly about editors or administrators? How do these hierarchies operate? We think about ourselves architects, however we have additionally labored inside the artwork world in locations that have been transdisciplinary of their make-up, so after we arrange our studio, we wished to maintain this freedom. Pedro and Juana are frequent names in Mexico, so in a method, it leaves the thought of authorship sort of open.’

Ruiz Galindo provides: ‘We’re at all times surrounded by tremendous inventive folks, some fabricate, some design, some make issues occur. The language of this identify provides us the chance for a extra collaborative future.’

Enter the world of Pedro Y Juana

Ruiz Galindo and Reuss met in Los Angeles in 2005, whereas learning at SCI-Arc (The Southern California Institute of Structure) – the previous within the MARCH graduate programme and the latter as an change pupil from TU Delft for a semester. After their course, they each labored with sculptor Jorge Pardo, who launched them to a unique set of inventive processes from these that they had skilled in structure faculty. They determined to maneuver to Mexico Metropolis – Ruiz Galindo’s dwelling city – to arrange their joint follow in 2011. Since then, they’ve taken on initiatives of all scales and kinds – from furnishings and architectural components to buildings, and from pavilions to exhibitions and artwork installations.

Their chosen base of Mexico has been a relentless supply of inspiration and fertile floor for them to discover pushing the boundaries of their follow. ‘Structure might be fairly a segregated occupation. Mexico has a universe of fabric artisans and processes of craft and making that’s basically distinct from that of Los Angeles. There are many craftspeople and fabricators we construct relationships with,’ says Reuss.

Opening up and connecting with the broader group round them is central to the studio’s work – they see their function as a connector, or translator between circumstances and areas. ‘Structure on the finish of the day is a method of manipulating area, you “push” folks to take a seat there or act in a sure method,’ Ruiz Galindo explains. ‘And objects can function actors. Each object has company and its personal set of social relations. By means of our follow and selection of initiatives, we need to discover the complete scope of the structure world, the relationships that occur inside development.’

Their work exists not solely in structure’s arguably most conventional type – constructing design – but additionally in every little thing this touches: the areas in-between scales and the dynamics between all its points. Their participation in Venice Structure Biennale 2025’s Mexico Pavilion, which can be proven within the Corderia del Arsenale, is a working example.

Forming a collective with two extra structure places of work (Estudio IUAPdA and Locus), graphic design company Estudio María Marín de Buen, plant consultants Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch and Nathalia Muguet, and Miguel Ángel Vega Ruiz, Xavier Delgado González y Shantal Gabriela Haddad Gómez of lighting consultants ILWT, the exhibit will discover Mexico’s chinampas – an historical agroforestry system of rising crops on small plots inside wetlands. It was first developed by the Nahua folks, particularly the Xochimilicas (most likely 900-1200 bc). Examples nonetheless function as we speak, even inside the city material of Mexico Metropolis.

For the design workforce, chinampas signify each nature and human-made monuments and might immediate us to consider cities and the way our constructed atmosphere is ‘killing our supply of life’. The idea of bridging and mediating between the pure and the factitious (true to this yr’s biennale theme, ‘Intelligens: Pure. Synthetic. Collective’) is central right here – and stays true to Pedro y Juana’s total method of working. ‘As architects, we’re in the course of a whole lot of issues and we hope we are able to talk these complexities to the broader public,’ says Reuss. ‘However on the similar time, you will need to keep in mind that we’re not specialists, we’re observers.’

It’s a thread additionally current in two of their most up-to-date architectural initiatives, each, coincidentally, on lakes, and each vacation houses for personal shoppers. The Wood Annex in Valle de Bravo is the remodelling of a construction by architect José de Yturbe Bernal (the Mexican modernist’s own residence). Their addition of a timber staircase construction playfully extends the residence whereas selling wooden development. In the meantime, Le Stalle close to Lago Maggiore in Italy revives the ruins of a secure into two trip houses, forging connections between previous and new in a delicate historic website reachable solely by an historical Roman cobblestone street.

The studio’s rising, multifaceted portfolio completely showcases its aptitude, playfulness and agility, and importantly, the pair’s need to study. An innate curiosity and restlessness turn out to be main forces of their spatial explorations – which, with each fee, increase their remit, at all times working hand in hand with their broad universe of creatives and customers. Reuss says: ‘After we meet a group, we need to allow them to play out their function and provides them a voice fairly than attempt to sit as a conductor in the course of an orchestra. Finally, we need to degree the enjoying subject and produce to the foreground what, in our opinion, must be seen.’