Arquine Competition No.27 | MEXTRÓPOLI Pavilion 2025

https://arquine.com/concurso/pabellon-mextropoli-2025/

Introduction

Since 1998, Arquine has held an architectural competition that allows ideas and proposals to be compared on equal terms. In this edition, the invitation is to design, build and activate a pavilion in the Historic Center of Mexico City within the framework of the MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival. Contestants must project a piece that meets the conditions specified in the bases of this contest in terms of time, costs and characteristics, considering the ability to provoke and attract citizens, which will be a fundamental part of the evaluation of the proposal. 

Objectives

• Convene, with a universal character, to present ideas for the development and construction of a Pavilion, recyclable or reusable, without exception, complying with the requirements established in these bases.
• Turn the pavilion into a reference space within the framework of the MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival, which manages to provide the festival with a space for reflection and discussion around architecture and the city. 

Jury

The selection of the members of the jury is very important. Their experience in the subject to be competed must be valued in order to ensure a high level of demand in the review of proposals. The jury reserves the right to choose as the winner a proposal that, without exactly complying with all the bases, manages to propose a solution or idea that is considered superior to the others.

• Loreta Castro Reguera Architect from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), she holds a Master's degree in Architecture from the Academy of Architecture of Mendrisio, and a Master's degree in Urban Design with honors from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. She is co-founder of Taller Capital. Her work focuses on the design of cities through densification and infrastructural public spaces, encompassing different strategies for water management. Taller Capital has received various recognitions and awards such as the MCHAP 2022, the XII Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo (BIAU) 2022, the Architectural League NY Emerging Voices 2021, the Global Gold Award of the Lafargeholcim Awards 2018, the installation of the El Eco Pavilion 2015, among others. She is a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
• Meir Lobaton Corona Architect from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University GSAPP. As a CONACYT Fellow, he graduated from Columbia with Honors for Excellence in Design and was awarded the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Design Award. He has taught architectural design studios and workshops at the Universidad Iberoamericana and CENTRO in Mexico City and at the University of Panama. He was an instructional assistant at Columbia University in New York and has been a guest critic at several architecture schools worldwide. He has been involved in multiple projects in diverse fields, ranging from architecture, design, and visual arts. His work has been widely featured in international publications and has been exhibited at major art galleries and museums around the world, including MoMA and PS1 in New York, the MAM - Museo de Arte Moderno in Medellín, Colombia, Matadero in Madrid, Spain, and the Arsenal in Venice, Italy.
• Dinorah Martínez Sculte Architect from the Universidad Iberoamericana. She has a specialization in Creative Code for Design from the Universidad CENTRO and a master's degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture and Digital Fabrication from the ETH in Zurich. She has worked for renowned firms such as MAD Architects in Beijing; Rojkind Arquitectos in Mexico City and ENSAMBLE Studio in Madrid. In 2019 she obtained a scholarship for the Robotic Atelier 2019 from the Norman Foster Foundation. Founder of MANUFACTURA, a multidisciplinary studio that studies the relationship between digital and analog manufacturing. She is a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Anáhuac-México Norte and Universidad La Salle.
• Jachen Schleich Architect from ETH Zurich, he is co-founder of Locus and Sustainable Living. His work spans scales from furniture to urban infrastructure and master plans. Jachen oversees the Swiss certification of sustainable construction (Minergie) in Mexico and manages the activities of the CEELA program in Mexico with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. He combines his practice with research and teaching. He is currently a professor in the Bachelor of Architecture at CENTRO University.
• Mauricio Rocha Architect from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Founder of the Taller de Arquitectura. He has designed and developed multiple projects, both public and private, and alternates his work with the realization of ephemeral architectural interventions in art exhibitions, as well as museography. He is a lifetime jury member of the Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship. Member of the National Academy of Architecture and Member of the National Academy of Arts. Throughout his career he has received multiple recognitions and awards, the most recent being the MCHAP 2023.

Prizes 

• First place $ 100,000 MXN

+ Construction of the proposal for the MEXTRÓPOLI 2025 Pavilion*

+ Access to MEXTRÓPOLI for (maximum) two members of the team and delivery of a package of Arquine books (10)

• Second place $ 50,000 MXN

+ Access to MEXTRÓPOLI for (maximum) two members of the team and delivery of a package of Arquine books (10)

• Third place  $ 25,000 MXN

+ Access to MEXTRÓPOLI for (maximum) two members of the team and delivery of a package of Arquine books (10)

• Honorific Mention

- The jury may agree to mention as many projects as it deems worthy of such a

distinction.

The economic prizes are with taxes included.

*The winning team must follow up on the development of the work, provide Arquine with the plans of the executive project for the construction of the MEXTRÓPOLI Pavilion and follow up on its construction through the channels agreed after the moment of failure with the team of Arquine. 

** Tickets will be granted with prior request from the winners. 

Documentation to present

A digital image containing the proposal must be delivered for the correct understanding of the project. This image should include:

• Overall plan, plans and sections of the proposal with a duly specified scale that is suitable for reading and understanding. 
• Diagrams, views, sketches, collages or any other representation of free technique that helps to express the idea of the project. 
• Construction details that they consider necessary for the description of the project with a scale duly specified and adequate for reading the project. 
• Descriptive text of a maximum of 250 words. The descriptions or texts may only be in Spanish or English. The image must be rectangular, horizontal, 90 cm (width) x 60 cm (height) in 72 DPI, JPG and no larger than 5 MB so that it can be uploaded into the system. The file name must match the user code assigned at the time of registration [ARQ-27C-XXXX].

No other formats or other forms of delivery of the material will be accepted. Only projects that are uploaded through the system within the established times will be evaluated. Once the Arquine team has downloaded the project after the deadline established in the calendar (April 14th 2025), the contestants will receive an email confirming the download of the file within a period not exceeding 72 hours.