Luis Aldrete
l estudio de arquitectura
A R C H I T E C T U R E
S T U D I O
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2008 · BUILT
LUIS ALDRETE
Studied architecture at ITESO (Guadalajara, Mexico) & UIA
(Mexico City). From 1996 to 1999 studied a doctorate degree
at ETSAB (Barcelona, Spain). Worked in Barcelona and
Mallorca. From 2000 to 2011 he was a Theory & Project’s
professor at ITESO & ITESM.
Establishes Luis Aldrete arquitectos in 2007, where he
creates a space to analyze the city & its urban events, where
the contemporary translation of anonymous architecture is
discussed relating it to different cultural fields. A place to
experiment with the insertion of craftwork with contemporary
architecture.
The studio’s work goes from art installations to urban projects.
P I L G R I M
R O U T E
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S H E L T E R S
ESTANZUELA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2008-2010 · BUILT
Around 2 million pilgrims each year walk the Pilgrim Route
located in Jalisco, Mexico, through existing mountains between
the towns of Ameca and Talpa to see the Virgin of the Rosary
as an act of devotion, faith and purification.
Due to the influx of visitors and as an effort to improve the
experience for walkers the Jalisco State Government and the
State Tourism Agency, financed the construction of infrastructure to give shelter and basic services to pilgrims, under this
assignment shelters located in Estanzuela and Atenguillo were
developed.
Among the premises for architectural design were the following: understanding and integration context, functionality, null
maintenance, be modular and the use of local labor.
Because of the great amount of pilgrims, developing a
program that would adapt to the needs of the visitors was no
easy task, so based on the fundamental idea of providing
shade and water to travelers, we decided to design buildings
that have the ability to operate flexibly, providing them only
basic services like showers, toilets, sinks, and mostly a large
open space that could well be used for sleeping, resting or
multipurpose room.
P I L G R I M
R O U T E
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S H E L T E R S
ATENGUILLO · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2008-2010 · BUILT
The architectural strategy consists of a series of base modules
which can be multiplied in order to give form to the project,
and which make the project capable of adaptation and growth.
The atmosphere makes sense when two kind of pieces made
of “adobe clay” color -which is one of the predominant colors
of the region- configure space. One of them is an essential
piece to perform a lattice perimeter on the buildings admitting
light and generating shadows as an abstraction of the covers
made with oak leaves in most of the sorrounding stoping
ponits, which have great space quality and sensibility.
After a thorough analysis and understanding of the context, the
inhabitants’ manners and customs, religious symbols, colors,
textures, materials, and how all these elements are used in a
vernacular way, the clues that would direct the project were
revealed. A clear design strategy in which the contemporary
aesthetics and the appropiation of local materials would allow
the different visitors to identify themselves with the shelters,
taking them back to experiences locked in their memory.
L A R V A
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C U L T U R A L
C E N T E R
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2009-2010 · BUILT · COLLABORATION S2 ARQUITECTOS
LARVA is a cultural space in Guadalajara’s Historic City Center
located in a movie theater from the fifties that had being
abandoned for over a decade. The building is upon one of the
principal avenues of the city, Avenida Juárez.
L A R V A
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C U L T U R A L
C E N T E R
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2009-2010 · BUILT · COLLABORATION S2 ARQUITECTOS
The budget for the intervention was minimum and had to be
completed in four months. The project was proposed under the
next premises:
1- Recognition of the existing building creating a dialogue with
the past and the conservation of the original structure because
not the entire building was going to be remodeled.
2- In orden to convey an evident state of abandonment, some
sections remained intact, reflecting the building’s personality.
3- For resources and time optimization, the existing wall finishings would be left as found without even painting. This would
conserve the personality of the building and would let the new
intervention integrate with the rest of the building.
4- The resources would be used in very specific places and
with the best posible quality. The materials would speak of the
intervention, wooden floors would add warmth to the project,
steel would collaborate by organising the general intervention.
Few elements but easy to identify.
The brief included a cafeteria, an exhibition gallery, a video
room, and a library.
E P R
H O U S E
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2009-2011 · BUILT
The project responds to the land’s morphology and topography. In order to take advantage of the land’s length, to expand
the garden area and constructed square meters, we placed
the house over its own footprint. The excercise was to work
with the superposition of two volumes.
The first volume is a steel base that gives the impression of
solidity and rootedness to the earth, at the same time it opens
up to the terrace and garden.
The second volume is a box which has a mineral pigment to
get a terracota like tone. Gaps are left in the box forming patios
that seem to make incisions in the volume; creating views but
keeping privacy inside.
S C
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R E S I D E N C E
PUERTO VALLARTA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2010-2012 · BUILT
The proposal is the result of a process that is based on three
variables which together articulate and give the narrative to
ideas.
The first one responds to the way of adapting the volume on
the land. This is consistent with it’s morphology; achieving the
best orientations, privacy and views as possible.
The second one involves regulations that order the use of
inclined rooftops with clay tiles, inspiring us to analyze the
context from afar. This is where we find analogies between
mountain lines and our rooftops.
H E R M È S
I
T E M P O R A R Y
P A V I L I O N
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2011 · BUILT
The installation was inspired by the tight relationship that
Hermès has had with horses since its origins. The main
objective is to show the design process of a special edition of
their iconic silk scarves. On this occasion, a group of native
Otomies were asked to design for the french firm. The scarf
was called “Din Tini Ya Zue”, which in Otomi dialect means
“the man’s encounter with the biodiversity that surrounds him
during harvest and the celebration of corn’s abundance”. As
you walk through the interior of the installation, you find the
colors in the same order in which they were printed on the
scarf, concluding with the final design, found in the ceiling with
the sample of the decomposé.
The project was curated by Patrick Charpenel
E C O
P A V I L I O N
MEXICO CITY · MEXICO · 2012 · BUILT
The competition consists to desing a pavilion in “El Eco” Museum’s patio in Mexico City designed by Mathias Goeritz.
The approach responds to a very basic reaction working the
vertical plan and the horizon with the yellow wall, which is the
element with most tension within the enclosure and at the same
time, gives sense to the patio. Therefore the project takes out
this wall from the space by inserting another wall diagonally
creating the reflection of the street facade. With this action
two patios are configured, in the smaller one the yellow wall is
contained, and as a second act, the interior faces are covered
with mirrors to create a reflection of the space and the yellow
wall creating a false circular patio.
L I G A
1 0
E X H I B I T I O N
MEXICO CITY · MEXICO · 2013 · BUILT
As in all of Luis Aldrete’s projects, his intervention at LIGA
starts from a deep interest in tangible objects, materials and
experiences. The patio of his office in Guadalajara shows
us the anonymous sources and references that are key
elements that define a personal language, and the inclusion
of physical memory is crucial in the materialization of his work.
At the gallery he uses plain formwork, earth, vegetation and
mirrors, to submerge a small garden into the mass of earth: an
architecture that is anchored deeply in an undeniable telluric
condition, intimately related to a material universe.
The access to this hidden oasis generates expectations, displacements and tensions that immerse us in a contemplative
micro-universe. There, the infinite repetition produced by the
mirrors creates an illusory space that reveals the spatial possibilities and sensibilities implicit in the daily world around us.
Text from LIGA 10 exhibition.
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M O C K - U P
O F
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C O M M O N
P L A C E
R M
R E S I D E N C I A L
C O M P L E X
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The approach done for this project starts with the pragmatic
analysis between the site’s morphology, topography, and
it’s unique beauty against the required density and different
variables found in the program we used as tools for the
commercial proposal.
R M
R E S I D E N C I A L
C O M P L E X
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Atmosphere and Image
The atmosphere is conserved at all times; the color green
prevails, light filtration through trees, ponds, stone, and views
as the guiding axis across the project.
The buildings are made with pigmented concrete in terracota
tone in order to balance the green chromatic. Local blacksmith
is used as an esthetic tool.
The paths throughout the complex communicate the buildings
and public spaces with trails that generate an equilibrium
between landscape and construction.
R M
R E S I D E N C I A L
C O M P L E X
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Location and Views
The strategy consists in making svelte buildings in their ground
floor densifying only 20% of the land. The geometry allows
87% of te apartments to have views and 100% of them have
crossways ventilation.
R M
R E S I D E N C I A L
C O M P L E X
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Apartments
Structure works as sunshade protecting each unit from the
orientations, allowing bigger views. It’s rithm grants opening in
the front visuals, while the diagonal or perspective closes up
providing privacy and intimasy to the residents.
There are only two types of windows in the buildings, one
measuring 1.00m by 3.00m and 2.40m by 3.00m
B F
R E S I D E N C E
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2013 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This proposal is determined by a box that opens completely to
a garden and another one that is mostly closed and only allows
certain views.
B F
R E S I D E N C E
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2013 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This boxes relate to each other by walkways that are completely oposite, one opens completely to a side of the site, and the
other one is broken into various volumes creating interstices
of different heights generating spaces that are understood by
their intimacy.
This opposites are developed in a program destined to relate
spaces remembering old mexican haciendas.
L C
I
O F F I C E
B U I L D I N G
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2013 · UNBUILT
The project’s approach begins with a pragmatic analysis
between the land’s conditions, morphology, and topography,
with the required density and different variables found in the
program we used as tools for the commercial proposal. At all
times, the concept intended to create a pleasant atmosphere;
the plaza, a roofgarden, the stone, landscape, views and
functionality as a guiding axis for the project. To achieve this,
we used stone pavements in the exteriors with green joints; the
building was divided with a different concrete finish than the
rest of it with differnt formwork and pigments. The promenade
communicates the building and represents a path, generating
a roofgarden and a business center.
Planta Sotano II
Planta Sotano I
Ground
Planta BajaFloor
Standard
Planta TipoFloor
500m² 500m2
Planta Tipo 125m²
Standard
Floor 125m2
Planta Business
CenterPlan
Business
Center
L C
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O F F I C E
B U I L D I N G
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2013 · UNBUILT
With the intentions of setting a local reference, achieving
certain intimacy and the search of uncommon sights to fabrics
near the site, we decided to lift a part of the project distributing
the program in small floor plans. At the same time, at ground
level, a small public square is open to the main streets.
L C
O F F I C E
B U I L D I N G
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2013 · UNBUILT
Finally, in the third level a roof garden is developed to create
a microsystem in which the decontextualization of elements
interact with a new context that integrates with the existing
tensions.
G R G
H O U S E
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2011 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The project begins with a 60% of inclined rooftops forced by
local normative. This circumstance took us to observe what
happens in different towns of Mexico and we found a great
richness in the images where the rooftops mix with each other
to generate a composition of diagonal planes.
The ground floor works as a whole but in the first floor, the
volumes are independent to achieve a unique personality in
each space.
At the same time the space manipulated by the inclined
rooftops gives sense to a series of walkways that communicate
the exterior and interior in different ways.
L A
R A D I T A
R E S I D E N C E
MANZANILLO · COLIMA · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · PROJECT
This proposal tries to give sense to the place and context. The
sea and jungle have very different tensions that we tried to integrate in the house exploding the program in various volumes
that relate independently with the landscape.
L A
R A D I T A
R E S I D E N C E
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2012 - 2015 · UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The use of plaster with local sands makes the materiality
belong to the site thanks to its chromatic. The absence of glass
made us study the different orientations to achieve sea breeze
from the ocean and fresh wind from the mountains in the afternoon. This way we connected with local lifestyle integrating the
house with a closer experience to the place.
M O N E X
R E S I D E N C I A L
C O M P L E X
GUADALAJARA · JALISCO · MEXICO · 2014-2015 · PROJECT
The building is proposed in a 1200 square meter land in an
avenue that is not only one of the busiest in town but also
delimits the traditional neighborhood of Santa Tere. The project
has commerce in the ground floor and apartments in the rest of
the building. Thef integration of the building with it’s context is
achieved by the views, having in mind that the tower will be a
new vertical reference in the avenue.
Vertical circulations are concentrated in the center of the
building, liberating the perimeter allowing views in every single
orientation. Building’s structure is visible in the perimeter as
well, providing every apartment have it’s own terrace. The
facades where designed trying to standarize it and help the
construction process by using only two types of windows along
the project.