Functional architecture with a strong cultural identity
For Design Week Mexico we were invited by ALRATITOstudio to create an installation for Casa del Atrio, an iconic modernist house in Mexico City and part of Design Week's TOURS DE DISEÑO.
Casa del Atrio, a house designed by architect Antonio Attolini Lack, is known as one of Mexico City's modernist masterpieces, merging functionalism, neocolonial and Mexican regionalism.
Attolini's style is described as reflective of the functional and rationalist architecture happening in Europe and the US in the mid-century, but imbued with a strong regional and local character. He was honored with the National Prize of Architecture in Mexico in 2002, and his exquisite architectural renderings are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
TWENTY ONE TONNES at Casa del Atrio
Our idea for this project was a response to Attolini's architectural legacy:
As Attolini's work reflected what was happening in the wider design world while celebrating Mexican identity, this Twenty One Tonnes designed installation was produced in close collaboration with our Mexican partners at FIBRA in a regional craft tradition with indigenous plant materials.
- Chessa Osburn, founder/designer Twenty One Tonnes
The installation is a series of five floating layered grid panels, echoing Attolini's use of repeating square patterns throughout the structure. The panels' rare and stunning ochre color was made to reflect the surrounding environment, though the textile installation also offers a contrast to Casa del Atrio in its soft materiality that moves with the air.
Each of the five panels was woven by master weaver Susana Vicente Galan on a giant treadle loom. A legacy textile artisan from the renowned craft community of Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, Susi used yarn spun from maguey fibers - the result of an intensive process guided by our partners at FIBRA.
First maguey leaves are harvested and pressed until all but the fibres remain. The resulting tangle is washed, dried, whipped and combed into smooth strands. Then the blonde horse-hair like strands are dyed with natural pant based dyes and twisted into lengths of slender cord. You can see a photographic journey through this craft process HERE.
For this project the maguey was dyed with Diospyros nigra, black sapote, which is a species of persimmon native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. A dyeing process that is only viable during the rainy season, these limited edition pieces are truly special.
If you're in CDMX in the coming weeks we hope you'll stop by Casa del Atrio to have a look!
