This Mexican architecture studio has a surprising creative process
The architects at young practice Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) often begin each design by writing out their intentions, ideas and the emotions they want the architecture to evoke
‘At the core of our practice lies the idea that architecture should reveal, not impose,’ say the Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) team. ‘Each project begins with an understanding of its site, material, cultural and climatic conditions, and translates these into spatial experiences that feel inevitable and alive.'
Dupuis house
Meet Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA)
They continue: 'We treat structure, proportion and light as elements of a single language, where the boundaries between interior and exterior dissolve into a continuous, open field. Our architecture seeks to define space through absence as much as through presence, allowing void, time and atmosphere to become active components of design.’
Rejas house
Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA) is still a relatively young practice, yet it has grown in leaps and bounds since its foundation in 2018 by Pablo Pérez Palacios. A philosophy centred on sensitivity, balance and a deeply contextual understanding of each scheme sits at the heart of the studio’s work. This is also reflected in its make-up as the practice now operates as a collective of some 15 collaborators with key members including head of strategy Emilio Calvo Garza and interior designer Michelle Katrib.
La Martine project
True as this may be, PPAA’s architecture still looks confident and refined, bearing an aesthetic signature that sets it apart among its peers. As a result, the studio has a growing portfolio of commissions, from residential to cultural and hospitality projects in Mexico, the US, France and Switzerland. Highlights include the Copas House in Valle de Bravo, and a guesthouse for Danish brand Vipp in Todos Santos, which won a Wallpaper* Design Award last year. ‘In both cases, the defined exterior space became a key element – the understanding that what we leave unbuilt is as important as what we build,’ they say.
Barrancas
What might surprise is that the team often begins each design by writing. ‘We draft texts about our intentions, ideas and the emotions we want the architecture to evoke. From there, we move to dialogue, sketches and models.
Vipp Todos Santos project
This iterative and collective process allows projects to evolve organically, shaped by reflection and collaboration rather than direction.’ Achieving designs with thought-provoking meaning is important for the team, who stress that ‘architecture today often risks becoming an image – a form of visual consumption detached from its human and spatial essence. What is missing, perhaps, is silence: the capacity to create spaces that invite pause, intimacy and awareness. In Mexico, this translates into a renewed need for architecture that listens – to climate, material and collective life – and that reclaims architecture as a cultural and poetic act, not merely a visual one.’
