Photographer Adam Wiseman documents self-built houses in rural Mexico
![Adam Wiseman's photography series 'Free architecture' documents the weird and wonderful self-built structures of rural Mexico.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/g9W2nttmyRHSTtXEsSbcYE-415-80.jpg)
Travelling the rural landscape and outer urban neighbourhoods of Mexico, photographer Adam Wiseman has documented the country's rural self-built structures in a new series. Mostly designed and built by non-architects, the houses lift references from a hotch-potch of sources such as Disney, neo-classicism and American suburbia to fascinating effect. Exploring the typology as an anthropologist, photo-journalist and also an artist, Wiseman has coined the term ‘Free architecture’ to describe their layered style and meaning.
Wiseman began to notice these unusual looking houses when he was driving through the countryside with his wife, Annuska, over a decade ago, although he thinks that they must have been around a lot longer. Once he clocked one, more and more kept emerging from the landscape: ‘They are the kind of surreal background that one doesn't always notice, and when one does you can’t understand how you never did,’ he says.
One of the houses from Wiseman's series, ‘Free architecture’.
Rising from roadsides and neighbourhood corners, or fields in the distance, there is something seductive about these houses, their collective combinations of turrets, neo-classical style columns, plastered iconography, built with raw materials and often in various states of completion. While being loud, colourful and crass, they are also fascinating, and to those with a postmodern leaning, there can be a full on attraction.
Wiseman’s curiosity grew into a need to document and research. He met with some of the ‘architects’ to find out about their process: ‘I discovered the relationship they had with migration, and consequently the symbiotic and idiosyncratic connection to the US, this of course piqued my interest and I became interested in the question of a home not as functional but as statement.’
A concrete house in the Mexican landscape with art deco style properties.
Many of the houses are funded by remittances, money sent by Mexicans working in the US back home. Their design also stems from this experience of migration to the US, as the elements lifted from American architecture – such as Hollywood, Disneyland and suburbia. Yet, the houses often remain empty, and exist as aspirational and symbolic substitutes for their owners, who are still working in the US.
It was this twist that pushed Wiseman to develop his theories further and ask more questions about the social and cultural dimensions of the houses. ‘I became interested in the question of a home, not as functional, but as statement – the idea of a home having a purpose that was more important than what a home is traditionally meant to do, vis a vis, give shelter. As well as the absurd geopolitical circumstances where a home that is not lived in takes the place of the immigrant who had to leave – where the owner had to leave his home to build a "home" where he no longer lives. The question of displacement becomes one of re-placement,’ he says.
A house inspired by a medieval castle.
The photographs level up to the facades, picturing them straight on, the careful framing increasing the absurdity of what is within. The clear, documentary style of photography highlights all the features so each house can be compared against another in its style. One thing most have in common is their unfinished elements, which Wiseman found out is often due to the changing taste of the owners, lack of budget, or the misinterpreted wishes of family members building on behalf of owners. This ‘unfinished’ aspect however, is another stylistic element in its own right, in a postmodern sense.
‘These houses cannot be seen as one traditionally sees architecture, it is too easy to write them off as kitsch or eyesores – which perhaps they can be at times – but there is much to admire and learn from them,’ says Wiseman, who references Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s Learning from Las Vegas and Robert Smithson's Hotel Palenque as constructive resources to his understanding of these contributions to the built environment and development of ‘Free architecture’.
A colourful Disney-inspired castle / house.
With a background in social anthropology and photojournalism, Wiseman’s approach has often been socio-cultural, yet he sees his work becoming ‘more subjective and possibly less scientific’: ‘I am interested in new ways of documenting through observation, representation, interpretation and social participation’, he says. In the case of this series, he has leant further towards a conceptual approach, as seen in contemporary art – prompted by finding cultural identity harder and harder to photograph as lifestyles become globally homogenised. He sees the Mexican architectural landscape as a culture in constant flux, unreceptive of clichés and defined by pressures of globalisation.
Wiseman’s interest in the concept of ‘Free Architecture’ continues as a three-year art grant from the Mexican Government; Fonca / SNCA has enabled him to expand into research of how government sponsored housing in Mexico is adapted to suit the tastes and needs of residents.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Adam Wiseman’s website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
Step inside Quinto Sol house, a verdant oasis in Mexico's Pacific Coast
Quinto Sol house by architect Cristina Grappin blends indoors and outdoors in a masterful architectural composition in the Mexican countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneer
Back in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Lucha Libre and modernist architecture meet in Mexican short film ‘El Luchador’
‘El Luchador’ blends Lucha Libre and architecture, in a Mexican short film set in Agustín Hernández Navarro's modernist home Casa Praxis in Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Mexico’s Amelia Tulum is where ‘the architecture becomes part of the jungle’
Amelia Tulum by Sordo Madaleno combines a human-centred approach and lots of greenery to craft a Mexican residential community like no other
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Scenic Garden offers architectural pavilions and a new green lung for Mexico City
Scenic Garden, designed by Michan Architecture and a team of collaborators, adds green infrastructure to Mexico City's bustling urban experience
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Sun-drenched Los Angeles houses: modernism to minimalism
From modernist residences to riveting renovations and new-build contemporary homes, we tour some of the finest Los Angeles houses under the Californian sun
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Cancun retreat by Mexico’s Vieyra Estudio takes inspiration ‘from the ocean’
Casa Nube, a new Cancun retreat by Vieyra Estudio, merges sea, style and sustainability in a private residence defined by a series of pools and terraces
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Antonio Solá offers a residential haven of calm in Mexico City
Antonio Solá, a new housing project by architecture studio Módica Ledezma, is a complex of four townhouses that offer serenity in the bustle of Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Published