Architecture by Encounter: An Interview with Diego Ricalde
Architecture by Encounter: An Interview with Diego Ricalde by Elena Bandar and Alice Parle
Diego Ricalde is a founding partner of Estudio MMX in Mexico. The firm has been recognised by Architectural Record and The Architectural League of New York and we had a chance to chat with him after his lecture arquitectura y territorio.
Where Architecture Begins
Always say yes to an architecture trip. Diego talked about the most important references coming from your senses. A place where you stood, even for a brief moment, can influence the lines you draw more than any previous study.
If you have the opportunity to travel, to visit architecture, take it. Be intentional about looking, touching and noticing your surroundings, as each experience will live within you forever. Then, without conscious effort, we draw on every experience and space we have visited in our own work.
On Site, Not Just on Screen
From discussing the impacts of digital tools on creativity to the importance of letting go of excessive expectations, Diego didn’t blame architects for being predictable, he blamed Excel. These spreadsheets which demand such strict efficiencies show it is not about a loss of creativity, but a lost freedom to engage with the parts of the work which cannot be measured.
So how do we resist standardisation without rejection?
Diego’s answer wasn’t protest but presence.
Return to the site.
Speak to the engineer.
Sketch when something doesn’t feel right.
Not everything has to be drawn for approval. We draw to understand space. “You’ve felt well and loved in certain places,” he said.
Architecture isn’t determined just by drawings. It’s felt in how a plaza holds shade at 2pm, or how the arcades in Jojutla Central Gardens frame communal gatherings. These spatial instincts can’t be generated through screens.
The Arcades at Jojutla Central Gardens by Estudio MMX
Designing Through Constraint
We discussed the plight of attempting to be immensely detailed and highly technical in a context like Mexico.
‘I don’t think there is [such a thing as] “Mexican architecture,” but there is a kind of thing that comes close to it. People try to do high-tech global architecture in a place unrelated to that…It takes you to a place of frustration because it doesn’t work out how you want. It is way healthier to skip all of this process and embrace the beauty in imperfection.’
Document only what is necessary, rather than running ourselves into the ground producing of hundreds of pages of details that no one needs. Otherwise, burnout is an inevitability around the corner. We need to change the way we work, and Diego believes the solution is not isolation, but a collision.
‘‘Our ideas meet and collide, sometimes they complement, sometimes they destroy each other, and something new happens.’’
At Estudio MMX, that collision is essential. Diego’s studio isn’t led by just one voice. The four founding principles have no individual authorship, just arguments. Diego talked to us about the etymology of the word University, to help him describe the importance of bringing together different perspectives. A university is a single place where many people and ideas are able to encounter and be challenged. It is a space where something new is always looking to be created.
Learning by Encounter
As emerging architects, we face a few universal challenges, from burnout to over-standardisation and digital detachment, but speaking with Diego highlighted the importance of our community for all of these challenges. Whether we’re reworking a sketch or balancing intuition against regulations, it is in the exchange with peers where we learn, we change, and we are able to create work with meaning.