May 14–Jun 29, 2022

En Común

Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City
Address
Christinenstrasse 18-19, 10119 Berlin Map
Hours
Tue-Fri 11 am–6:30 pm, Sun-Mon 1–5 pm

How do we want to build, live, dwell and work together - not only in the future, but already now? Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao has been pursuing this question for over a decade with her interdisciplinary office Tatiana Bilbao Estudio. She strives her vision of coming together beyond mainstream and star cult and understands architecture as a common platform for all those involved in the design as well as the use. She designs, plans and builds with empathy, attitude and responsibility. "For this holistic approach to architecture, her unyielding commitment and her inspiring way of working", she is now being awarded the AW Architect of the Year 2022 prize. En Común, which translates as 'together', is reflected in the exhibition in eight international projects, including a conceptual home and a monastery in Germany. The exhibition emerged from the collaboration with German AW Architektur & Wohnen magazine and the Aedes cooperation partner CEMEX.

Tatiana Bilbao and her team repeatedly relate the variously defined ways of coming and living together as well as the special relationship between public and private space. The title of the exhibition also refers to the way in which projects and designs are created in cooperation with clients, users and other architectural offices. Bilbao maintains an overview of the urban fabric, complements (urban) landscapes with buildings and squares, and never loses sight of the detail and appreciation of historical structures and materials. Sustainable building methods and techniques play just as important a role as the social aspects of architecture and the collaboration with other (landscape) architecture firms and artists in the development of concepts. Tatiana Bilbao creates cultural and social values on different scales in both urban and rural contexts.

"A city unites an infinite number of cities, each of which is shaped by its inhabitants and the spaces created within it. Every pavement, every street lamp, every building defines the city. In this respect, every moment of encounter and togetherness also defines the city. It can be in the park, at the market, in a laundry or school," state Tatiana Bilbao and Ayesha S. Gosh, architect at Tatiana Bilbao Estudio. With their projects, they create exactly these spaces: precisely those in which users and residents organise themselves and live and work together.

En Común shows eight exemplary projects as a reference for the office's way of working, using models, collages and large-scale hand drawings created collectively. Spacious models made of concrete, rammed earth, wood or brick confer the materiality and atmosphere of the projects, some of which are in the planning stage and others, which have been realised. Accompanied by texts and photographs, reproduced hand drawings by the architect convey her working methods.