Following last year's grand opening of the art, architecture and design school at the University of Monterrey (The Gate of Creation), Mexico has been gearing up for the launch of its second high profile public building designed by Tadao Ando; the home for the Casa Wabi Foundation.
Set up by artist Bosco Sodi and directed by Patricia Martin (former director and curator of La Colección Jumex), the art foundation is situated on the outskirts of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, about 500 miles southwest of Mexico City. Sodi 'always admired Ando's architecture' and approached the Japanese Pritzker Prize-winning architect for the design of his foundation's new headquarters. There is one more Japanese connection - Casa Wabi is named after the Japanese ideal of wabi-sabi, which revolves around the beauty of life's imperfections.
Ando obliged, creating a central complex around which sit six freestanding residences. The composition also includes two studios, an exhibition space and several multipurpose spaces. A 67-acre botanical garden set to become the foundation's outdoor contemporary art collection completes the scheme.
The architecture combines modern and traditional materials and techniques; the structure is concrete, following Ando's signature style, but also uses the region's traditional 'palapa' construction. This is an open-sided pavilion featuring a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves that is common in that area of Mexico.
Casa Wabi opens this weekend with a new site-specific installation by French artist Daniel Buren and aims to run four main programs: an interdisciplinary artist residency, social and education programs and a garden and film program that will bring together the artists and the local community. The foundation is open by appointment.
The architecture combines modern and traditional materials and techniques.
The structures are concrete, following Ando's signature style, but the architect also uses the region's traditional 'palapa' pavilions.
A palapa is an open-sided pavilion, featuring a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves that is common in that area of Mexico
The complex includes two studios, an exhibition space and several multipurpose spaces.
Casa Wabi takes its name after the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which revolves around the beauty of life's imperfections.
The foundation's team aims for the program to bring together the artists and the local community.
ADDRESS
G Protasio Tagle 41, Piso 1
San Miguel Chapultepec
Miguel Hidalgo, 11850
Mexico
-
Four under-the-radar travel destinations to book in 2026 – before everyone else doesYou'd be forgiven if none of these locations are on your travel bingo card – yet
-
Estudio Ome on how the goal of its landscapes ‘is to provoke, even through a subtle detail, an experience’The Mexico City-based practice explores landscape architecture in Mexico, France and beyond, seeking to unite ‘art and ecology’
-
Charlotte Chesnais brings her distinctive sensuality to sculptural new jewelleryDefined by curving shapes and luscious pearls, the jewellery designer's new collection, 'Joaillerie', has sculptural allure
-
Estudio Ome on how the goal of its landscapes ‘is to provoke, even through a subtle detail, an experience’
The Mexico City-based practice explores landscape architecture in Mexico, France and beyond, seeking to unite ‘art and ecology’
-
Pretty in cactus-inspired pink, this Mexican desert house responds to its arid contextCasa Cardona, a pink house by architects Sensacional Dinamica Mexicana, is a multigenerational home that celebrates colour and changing light
-
As climate disasters increase, can architecture respond? Kon-tigo, a post-hurricane Acapulco house design, shows us howKon-tigo is a housing project by Manuel Cervantes Estudio, which creates bioclimatic homes that address climate disasters and inequalities in Acapulco, Mexico
-
An eco-friendly Mexican ranch offers sleep under a beautifully crafted brick vaultArchitects Goma have built a Mexican ranch with a stunning red-brick guest pavilion; Rancho El Ameyal is a lush eco-retreat in the central Mexican state of Querétaro
-
A guide to modernism’s most influential architectsFrom Bauhaus and brutalism to California and midcentury, these are the architects who shaped modernist architecture in the 20th century
-
Naoshima New Museum of Art is a home for Asian art, and a lasting legacy, in Seto Inland SeaThe Naoshima New Museum of Art opens, marking a seminal addition to the Japanese island's renowned Benesse Art Site Naoshima; we explore Tadao Ando's design
-
In Quintana Roo, a park mesmerises with its geometric pavilionA Mexican events venue in the state of Quintana Roo rings the changes with a year-round pavilion that fosters a strong connection between its users and nature
-
Casa La Paz is a private retreat in Baja California full of texture and theatricsLudwig Godefroy designed Casa La Paz in Baja California, Mexico to create deep connections between the home and its surroundings
