Adriana David is a stunning young architect. She studied architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and then scenography in Madrid. Immediately after completing her studies, she started her own spatial design studio called DOMA and has since worked in a wide range of urban planning, architecture, scenography and lighting design. As she tells in conversation, her point of view is characterized by her second passion, dancing.

About a month ago I saw the play “Memoria in corporada” staged and performed by her. Despite my poor Spanish knowledge, the piece tore me along. The translated “embodied memory” was developed into a play together with the dancer Casilda Madrazo. A letter from Casilda describes the spatial experience of her house, which Adriana interpreted spatially. With very few objects on stage, the voice of Adriana, the movements of the dancer Casilda and the instrumental accompaniment of the clarinetist, they managed to transfer a physical tension and relaxation to the audience. At the end of the blog post, the recording of the play is linked.

«to force us to think about what are the elements that really mean something to us»  «I’ve asked the clients to describe their houses. So they describe their actual house and they describe the dream house that they want me to build»  «for us it was a matter of understanding what the basics are for you to feel at home» 

Portrait © Adriana David

In the second part of the interview with Adriana David I ask her “what can we learn from Mexico?”. Adriana talks about her personal learning experience in Mexico. She takes each task in a new location as an opportunity to deal intensively with the place. In order to understand the place, it is essential, in addition to research, to talk to the local people, be it a fisherman or an architect. She talks to the people until she gathers as much information as possible to create an adequate project in this location. She describes the learning of the long-established as a valuable learning experience.

A second project, that went through her mind thinking about my question, is called „Limbo“. In dialogue with the client, an NGO, it turned out that instead of the initial idea of a building, an installation in public space seemed more accessible and more suitable for the content of the message. With the project, the NGO and the architect want to draw attention to the seed shortage and the associated significance for the food of our future. It is somehow a learning experience for everyone. Since 2015, „Limbo“ is a traveling exhibition and travels all over Mexico.

«it is very important to talk to the locals who have been living there for a while»  «I am not talking about creating vernacular architecture. I think you have to modernize it»   «People can experience and discover this big diversity of food that we have in Mexico»

Further links:

– Homepage of the architectural office of Adriana DOMA: www.doma.mx 

– Instagram from DOMA: https://www.instagram.com/doma_mx/