Juan Campanini and Josefina Sposito established their eponymous studio in 2017 in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Since then, their practice has been focused on both design and education, as well as research.

For LIGA 37, they present a reinterpretation of the landscape of Mexico City, not as a uniform and indivisible entity, but as a fragmented fabric composed of a collection of distinct recognizable parts. Thus, they present architecture as the discipline responsible for determining the urban framework, with the critical capacity to explore ways of creating and looking at the city.

The intervention takes place along the façade wall where LIGA is located, covering both the street-facing front and its reverse side within the gallery. The distance between the cityscape and the observer inside the room is eliminated through a technical illusion that frames the gaze: a real-time projection that showcases this new urban front within the gallery, yet another fragment of the city's landscape.

The 1950s in Cuba were very significant for architecture. Max Borges Recio (1918–2009) was one the great architects of this generation, designer of iconic projects such as Tropicana Cabaret (1952) or the Nautical Club (1953). His projects became part of the Cuban Modern Regionalist Movement, an architecture that blended the international principles of the modern style with local elements of the Cuban tradition. Borges's work is one of the few in Cuba that is still standing, and most of it remains in use for its intended purpose.

The Heroic Military College (Agustín Hernández Navarro and Manuel González Rul, 1976) stands as a project both emblematic and enigmatic. Situated on the outskirts of Mexico City, it’s bearly accessible to civilians, evoking echoes of a pre-Hispanic era while also hinting at a dystopian future. Remarkably, despite its existence for almost half a century, this captivating site has been sparingly documented. The archives contain a handful of image series, an iconic music video featuring Luis Miguel, and even a film featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After months of email exchanges, we reached an agreement on the logistics of the visit. We entrusted the task to a team of five architecture photographers: Arturo Arrieta, Lorena Darquea, Luis Gallardo, Onnis Luque, and Luis Young. The materials showcased in this exhibition are the outcome of two days of extensive photographic documentation. 

During the month of June 2022, as part of this initiative, we had the opportunity to interview Agustín Hernández Navarro and share some of the images we took with him.  Unfortunately, Hernández Navarro passed away last November. We would like to express our gratitude to his daughter, Lorena Hernández, for all the support provided in the development of this project.

The exhibition furniture was commissioned by LIGA in collaboration with Gerdau Corsa, a great ally and sponsor of our initiative. For its construction, a 24” IR beam weighing 55 pounds per foot was used. It was made of high-strength, low-alloy steel produced from 100% recycled materials.

This project was recognized by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Trained in the US (Princeton & Cornell), the young Mexican architect Isidoro Michan-Guindi (Mexico City, 1990) established a practice in Mexico City in 2019.

As the studio has no relevant realized buildings in its portfolio, Michan-Guindi is relatively unknown within the panorama of contemporary Mexican architecture. Yet, his studio is a thriving laboratory in which carboard models, colored concrete try-outs, electro-robotic components and aluminum casts are transformed into intelligent architectural proposals, ranging from everyday objects like door handles to complete housing towers.

Through a constant exploration with prototypes and models, Michan-Guindi has developed an exciting body of work that questions basic architectural notions such as composition, gravity, comfort and functionality. His proposals have strong animistic qualities and a certain formal awkwardness, that make the spectator looks twice. He invokes a tangible world of Hedjuk-like animals, devilish horns, otherworldy characters, shapes with souls and self-propelling stools, provoking a successful clash between the absurd and the plausible.

Collaborators: Sina Ozbudun en la Torre de cuatro patas (2018) y Edificio con rampa (2019) y de Mads Bjorn Christiansen en Casa columna (2021) y Edificio con sombrero (2022).

Team: Angélica Sarmiento, Luis Iván Méndez, Emmanuel Durán, Mariel Avilés, y Julián Castelán.

Next September 8, we will inaugurate LIGA 35: en tu mente, hand in hand with the Cuban architects Infraestudio.

Infraestudio is an art and architecture studio founded in Havana in 2016, headed by architects Anadis Gonzalez (1994) and Fernando Martirena (1992). They have exhibited in the 12th and 13th Havana Biennials, in group displays at Taller Chullima and Taller Galeria Gorría, and had their first solo exhibition at the Ludwig Foundation in 2019. Their transdisciplinary practice explores a variety of formats such as urban investigations, architectural projects, installations, sculpture, photography, performance, site specifics, drawing and collage.

Do not miss it!

Available until august, 2022. 

*The transmission will be hosted on our YouTube channel and via our Facebook page.

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"The LIGHT is an industrial object and familiar," wrote his
colleague Donald Judd in 1964 when first considering
implications or Dan Favin work; "It is a means new to art.
Art could be made of any number of objects, materials,
and techniques."And since then,it has been. Inventively
situating varying configuration of light in relationship to
architecture and occupying spaces with physical vol-
umes of light and color, Flavin's conception of art is
pretty much determined by light and color yet,the spatial
framework is the inflection point for Ihe viewer experi-.
ence.As Light and art mingle and blur, ight become art
and art deploys light as an expression.

La Casa-Jardín Ortega es una casa y un museo,donde la misma familia que desde la época de los 40s la habita hasta el dia de hoy y la mantiene como cuando Luis Barragán la diseño y el mismo habitó de 1942 a 1947.Posteriormente la dejó para construir su casa en el predio vecino que hoy es considerada una de sus más grandes obras realizadas en el barrio de Tacubaya formando parte de un nodo icónico en el patrimonio cultural y arquitectónico de la ciudad reconocida por la UNESCO.

Lutron de la mano de LIGA y la familia Ortega se han dado a la tarea de utilizar la luz y tecnología como herramienta de trabajo para explorar la relación entre los interiores,los patios y los jardines de Casa-Jardín Ortega desdibujando sus líneas al caer la noche. Diseñadores de iluminación y arquitectura de la actual generación experimentan una perspectiva diferente presentando estos espacios como salas museográticas abiertas, probando y rompiendo los límites fenomenológicos de los colores y de las formas de la arquitectura y el paisaje con la tecnología accesible en nuestros tiempos.

LIGA, Espacio para arquitectura, iniciativa sin fines de lucro que agradece y se suma a la creatividad y entusiasmo de los diseñadores invitados, quienes comprometidos por preservar el legado de Barragán contribuyeron con este proyecto. Los recursos recaudados se destinarán a la conservación y mantenimiento de Casa Ortega,considerada como el secreto mejor guardado de la obra de Luis Barragán.

Invitados:
Artec Studo / Taller ADG / Jorge Hernández de la Garza / Luca Salas / Luz en Arquitectura / Sombra / Tonal Taller / Yuri Zagorin. 
Agradecemos a Casa-Jardín Ortega por abrir sus puertas a este gran proyecto.
Este proyecto es posible gracias a la colaboración y patrocinio de LUTRON, MAERIC, MT Ingeniería. 

Inauguración miércoles 3 de noviembre 2021, 6:00pm CDMX.

This intervention is a body of work that describes part of an investigation titled — El Sinseñalismo—which explores the concepts of digital disconnectivity and deceleration and its relationship with art and architecture. Through this endeavor Tezontle seeks to suggest a reconnection with the elemental essence of humankind.

‘Fair Shelter’ is a living space for a fictional explorer in which a ‘signal-less’ life can be sustained. A diorama of sorts, this space seeks to display this character’s life by means of a series of objects, artifacts, and sculptures that represent and symbolize the daily routine of the user. Elements that recall, through their interactions with the most basic forms of life, a way of relating and reconnecting with the essential, while questioning our contemporary way of living— behavioral patterns, customs, and uses we take for granted. By creating an ephemeral space, the installation also explores themes of temporality in architecture, calling into question the very notion of permanece.

Next Tuesday, January 26th at 7 pm, we invite you to join us for the launch of LIGA-ARCHIVOS, presenting the archive of the photographers Roberto and Fernando Luna, through an online conversation* with Wonne Ickx (founding partner of LIGA), Ana María Artigas Cantú (Francisco Artigas’ daughter), Mario Ballesteros (Editor of Travesías magazine) and Luis Fernando Luna (Fernando Luna’s son).

* The transmission will be hosted on our YouTube channel and via our Facebook page.

Tezontle, formed by Lucas Cantú and Carlos H. Matos, uses tools and codes from architecture and sculpture, placing itself at an ambiguous point between both disciplines. Starting from different aesthetic and historical references, they have built an idiosyncratic imaginary that refers to a bucolic utopia, at the same time modernist, pre-hispanic and primitivist.

1. Wednesday, Oct 21st: Ardmore House. Kwong Von Glinow
2. Wednesday, Oct 28th: Haus Gables. Jennifer Bonner (MALL).
3. Wednesday, Nov 4th: House #10. MOS Architects.
4. Wednesday, Nov 11th: Vault House. Sharon Johnston (Johnston Marklee).
5. Wednesday, Nov 18th: Mother House. Paul Andersen (Independent Architecture).

LIGA 33 by Amunátegui Valdés, is entitled "Compendium" and explores configurations in which architecture neither designs nor composes, but rather organizes and assembles the material world to mediate between humans, technique and nature. It takes clues from historical references such as tabernacles, cabinets, miniatures and mobile shrines, to investigate juxtapositions of elements as a way to create environments of meaning and experience. The project is planned to open in the fall, in presence of both architects. 

For the moment, LIGA is open to the public (by appointment only) to visit the exhibition LIGA 32 "Shameless Copy" by the brazilian firm Terra e Tuma.

Visits are individual. All necessary health and safety measures will be taken.

The use of face masks is mandatory for access.

More news soon!

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Free event. 

Free event. Limited places available 
Please contact us at: info@liga-df.com

Free event

Free event. 

Free event. 

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A construction that reminds us of the rib cage of a great whale, trapped inside the gallery space itself. The "thorax" is fragile and flexible at the same time, a space that simultaneously represses and protects our vital organs: between prison and protective cave. It is difficult to know if the wooden structure inquestion is the fragile beginning of a construction (the wooden studs of a workin progress), or if it is its ruin, that what remains after the shipwreck.

To download competition bases, please click ¨DESCARGAR¨ here below. Scroll down in document for English text:

Una vez en el espacio de la galería, y tomando la forma de un personaje/escultura, se preguntan cual será su papel en esta obra.  Pedraglio toma  "Seis personajes en busca de un autor" (1925) del dramaturgo italiano Luigi Pirandello como base para un guión, eliminando todas aquellas frases que no aluden directamente al tema central de la obra: Seis personajes que se presentan en escena para formar parte de una representación. Las actrices irrumpen así en el espacio de LIGA, e insisten en que se les permita contar su propia historia: ya sea la de los personajes que representan en la ciudad, o la de las actrices que ahora les toca ser.

The exhibition takes a starting point the project “Monolith Controversies,” an investigation undertaken for the Venice Biennale 2014, curated by Rem Koolhaas, as part of the section “Absorbing Modernity.”  A hybrid object stood in the middle of the Pavilion of Chile: a concrete panel 3 x 3 m in height, produced by the KPD factory donated by the USSR to the city of Quipulé in Chile, to support the socialist government of Salvador Allende.

This concrete monolith, part an industrial product, part a monument to the present, was a symbol of the social and economic transformation of Chile through the mass construction of social housing. The model came from France, and had been invented as a cheap and efficient solution during the post-war reconstruction period in Europe. It was later adopted by the Soviet Union due to the housing shortage arising from the de-Stalinization process led by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Its third incarnation emerged in Cuba, where the system was readapted as the Soviet “Great Panel” in 1963, as the result of the donation of a concrete panel production factory to the regime of Fidel Castro. By means of these adaptations, the panel system finally reached the Chile of Salvador Allende, following a new donation of a KPD panel factory to support the Chilean people in the wake of the 1971 earthquake. One of the first panels to be produced was signed by the hand of Allende himself, as a symbol of a new era, an example of modernization and new social policies for housing. Following the 1973 coup d’état, the factory switched direction and strategy, altering the path set out by the socialist wing. The wall, which was signed together with the Russian ambassador with the legend “Thank you Soviet and Chilean comrades,” was canceled out with a new layer, converting the social monolith into a traditional religious altar: the triumph of the conservative right over socialism and the burial alive of a moment loaded with hopes and airs of renewal. The factory continued operating, and the concrete panel would be assimilated into two politically antagonistic phases, representing its fourth and fifth interaction: the socialist KPD (1972) and the neoliberal VEP (1976).

For the exhibition, the two researchers make a recount through photographs of the history of the panel as a reflection of the architectural, political and cultural history of Chile, starting with a journey of several decades until its recovery and exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In the LIGA space a model of a “Matrioshka” building is on display, where the different interconnected systems of this model converge, with values of similarity and repetition, standardization and variation of an object, which is linked to technological, architectural, design, art, political and cultural processes.

In addition, drawings and press documents will be exhibited that accompanied  the sociocultural process of Chile and the transformation of the city during the period of Salvador Allende. Finally, a previously unseen documentary will be shown that covers the whole process of the recent discovery and unveiling of the panel.

About the researchers: Pedro Alonso is an architect who holds a master’s in Architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and a doctorate in Architecture from the Architectural Association of London. Hugo Palmarola studied design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). He holds a master’s in the History and Theory of Industrial Design from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), where he also studied a doctorate in Latin American studies with a thesis on the technological imaginary during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

“A House Is Not Just a House” [Una casa no es solo una casa], revisa el trabajo de Tatiana Bilbao en torno a la vivienda. Su trabajo construye argumentos sobre la producción de espacios domésticos de una forma expansiva a la par que mínimal, inseparable del contexto donde se ubican y basados en los principios fundamentales del habitar. El libro incluye  reflexiones de colegas y académicas como Amale Andraos, Gabriela Etchegaray, Hilary Sample e Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco. 

La presentación del libro en LIGA junta a sus autoras en un debate que servirá para conocer a fondo el trabajo de Tatiana Bilbao y ahondar en las genealogías de la vivienda social. Un proyecto que enlaza también con la reciente exposición inaugurada en LIGA “Trayectorias de un panel”, sobre la historia geopolítica de la vivienda en Chile.

A House Is Not Just a House forma parte de la serie Transcripts on Housing, de la serie GSAPP Transcripts, en colaboración con M.Arch Housing Studios en Columbia University GSAPP.

We are open from Tuesday to Satudardy from 11am to 6pm.

In this issue we will reflect together with architects, artists and theoreticians on the way in which structures to house, organize and influence human life are planned and built, together with forms of resistance that contribute to destabilizing the pillars of the neoliberal system.

In the mirage of functionality, the collateral effects of a developmental principle that (re)produces itself, ignoring gentrification, dispossession and displacement, become invisible. How can architects address their practice critically, establishing a space for dialogue that reverses the exercises of power? Under what working parameters can honest processes be established, where architecture works in favor of the well-being of the community? How to think about architecture on the basis of an active heterogeneity that is able to connect the past and the future in order to sustain a hybrid present?

Collaborators: Laura Burocco, María Berríos, Tadeo Cervantes, Mónica Chuji, Dorothée Dupuis, Ruth Estévez, Jorge Lobo, Iván López Munuera, Andrea Pacheco, Godofredo Pereira, Fernando Portal, Marina Reyes Franco, Elisa Silva, Vere Van Gol.  

https://terremoto.mx/issue/issue-13-la-pared-dividida/