In recent years, as Director of one of Mexico’s leading schools of architecture, I have had time for ample reflection on what architecture is and what it ought to be. I have had the opportunity to hear various definitions of the term, almost all from a purely academic perspective permeated with a rhetoric that does little to clarify the essence and the foundations of our discipline.

I have seen and sought out constructions that have helped me gain a fuller understanding of its essence, and in many cases I have found the same hollow rhetoric devoid of content, striving to resemble the architectural production of others. In my untiring search for a flash of motivation to shed light on these reflections, in Miguel Ángel Aragonés I have found something that he constantly seeks and that strikes me as an essential part of creating spaces: “imbuing man and his surroundings with dignity.” Throughout history, we can single out great architecture based on this premise, for it is here that the arts converge as the fundamental element used to enrich the lives of the persons who inhabit the spaces architects create, something Aragonés has displayed in a career spanning 23 years.

The works are truly remarkable in their spatial quality. In them, we can appreciate the architect’s virtually seamless use of materials with great sobriety, as they do not aspire to dominate a given space, but rather they are bent to the architect’s will to create spatial effects bringing man closer to himself and to the world around him.

Nicola Lorusso Photography

Carlos Ruiz De Chavez Text