View of Heroico Colegio Militar, Mexico City, 2022. Designed by Agustín Hernández and Martín González Rul, 1976. Courtesy LIGA-Space for Architecture. Photo: Onnis Luque
Through Architecture for Gods, a contemporary record of the building Heroico Colegio Militar, an imitable example of Mexican architecture designed by Agustín Hernández and Martín González Rul in 1976, is created. Apart from the official documentation from the late ‘70s, there is relatively little photographic documentation of the building as it is part of the Mexican military infrastructure and has restricted access. With this project, LIGA showcases an intriguing under-represented work from Mexican architecture history in a contemporary interpretation, simultaneously creating a culture around emerging architectural photography in Mexico. This initiative culminates in an exhibition, followed by a series of conversations with the photographers, as well as historians and architects. Finally, all the material collected will be accessible on the LIGA—ARCHIVES platform, promoting its consultation and creating a permanent record of the project.
Arturo Arrieta is a Mecixan-born photographer and studied architecture at The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His photography focuses on capturing spontaneous moments of people walking down the street, as well as their interaction with the spaces, a geometric blend provided by the architecture and the intervention of natural light as they pass by everyday characters.
Lorena Darquea, an Ecuadorian architect and photographer and graduate of ITESM, explored the field of photography in the year 2009 when attending the workshop of Visual Arts at the university of Aalto in Helsinki, Finland. She began to become increasingly involved in photography as her career, which led her to complete a program of Low Residency at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York in 2018. She participated in the 2016 Venice Biennial as part of the exhibition Time Space Existence. In 2019, Darquea was selected to present her work Planos at the BAL (Biennial of Latinamercan Architecture). It has been presented together with the projects of various architects at the BIAU (Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism) and the BAQ (Panamerican Biennial of Architecture of Quito).
Onnis Luque is a Mexico City-born photographer who studied architecture at The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is founder of Arquitectura Vista: a project that integrates a critical vision on architecture, the city and the landscape in its intersection with public policy and territorial understanding. Luque is also author of the books UNDERCOVER (The Velvet Cell, 2021) and USF/DF Tácticas de Apropiación (CONACULTA+Ediciones Acapulco, 2014); grantee of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts; and a member of the National System of Creators (SNCA). His work has been exhibited in The World Around Us, Guggenheim Museum, 2021; Houses for All, IFA'Gallery. Stuttgart, Germany. 2019; Echoes of a Land, XVI Biennalle Architettura Venezia, 2018; The Next Economy, VII Internationale Architectuur Biennale Rotterdam, 2016; and Walk the Line, XV Biennalle Architettura Venezia, 2016.
Luis Young is an architect who graduated with academic excellence from the Faculty of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM). During his studies, he carried out a residency at the Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin). Young has collaborated with various studios in both Berlin and México City. Because of his interest in exploring the possibilities of architecture, since 2018 Young has developed his professional practice in an independent and multidisciplinary manner where architectural design, research, photography, and art converge in the same field of action. In 2020, he received the Young Creators grant of FONCA with the project Estructuras Vacantes (Vacant Structures), which explores a series of underutilized buildings in the west of México City and their potential to be reused.
Wonne Ickx studied civil engineering and architecture at the University of Ghent, Belgium and Urban Studies at the Centre for Metropolitan Studies (CEMET) in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 2006, he founded PRODUCTORA in Mexico City, together with Abel Perles, Carlos Bedoya, and Victor Jaime. PRODUCTORA has received many awards for its work, including the prestigious Oscar Niemeyer Prize for Latin American Architecture. Ickx has taught architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD); Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT); University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Rice University; Princeton University; Columbia University and several universities in Mexico. He is cofounder of LIGA—Space for Architecture, an independent platform that promotes Latin American architecture in Mexico City since 2011. He publishes frequently and is part of the editorial board of Arquine, the leading architecture magazine in Latin America.
LIGA–Space for Architecture is an independent platform founded in Mexico City in 2011 that promotes Latin American contemporary architecture through exhibitions, conferences, and workshops.