LIGA 36: Isidoro Michan-Guindi
Hybrid Creatures
March – June 2023
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.
Photography: Arturo Arrieta
Models and other animals by Cristina Díaz y Efrén García
